Governor Dikko Radda of Katsina State has revealed how the 34 local government councils in the state expended N128 billion on projects through the joint account with the state between June 2023 and June 2024.
The governor revealed this at a meeting with council chairmen, members of the House of Assembly and State Executive Council.
Radda, who called the meeting following the ruling of the Supreme Court on local government autonomy, said at the meeting on Wednesday in Katsina: “You are fully aware of how we jointly contributed towards projects across the state.
“So, about N128 billion was spent by the local government councils themselves through the joint account.”
The governor said that payment of salaries gulped N66 billion, N10.1 billion was spent on pension/gratuities and N12.13 billion on security within the period under review.
Radda said the councils spent N376.6 million on security requests, N4 billion on direct running of the councils, N15.1 billion on various projects and N360 million on instructional materials.
Other expenditure included N1.5 billion for foreign and local scholarships, N933.8 million on Hajj operation, N6.14 billion on food palliatives, and N3.1 billion on palliative care for local governments, LEAs staff and stakeholders during the Sallah celebrations, hile N3.84 billion went into procurement of fertilisers and N1.19 billion on agrochemicals.
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Radda added: “This is not exhaustive, but represents monies sent directly to the local governments’ accounts.
“It is an inseparable part of the policy implementation.”
Radda reiterated commitment to the respect of the rule of law, and enjoined the citizens to be law abiding.
He said: “I will respectfully say that some of us tried our best to manage the joint account funds in a collective approach.
“We are facing socio-economic challenges coupled with insecurity in our frontline local governments.
“Fighting insecurity is monumental and resource consuming.
We must continue to fight it together regardless of the situation in individual local governments.”
Radda, however, expressed concern on how some critical engagements of the local government councils would be affected by the Supreme Court ruling.
He said: “The salaries of teachers under SUBEB, local government worker’s salaries, pensions/gratuities, and deductions for emirate councils, and the fate of the Local Government Service Commission and Local Government Pension Board have become uncertain.”
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