Katsina Gov gives account of how 34 LGAs spent ₦128bn in 1 year

Radda stated this at a joint meeting with council chairmen, members of the House of Assembly and the State Executive Council (SEC), on Wednesday in Katsina.

“You are fully aware of how we jointly contributed towards projects across the state.

“So, about ₦128 billion was spent by the local government councils themselves through the joint account,” he said.

He said that payment of salaries gulped ₦66 billion, ₦10.1 billion spent on pension/gratuities and ₦12.13 billion on security within the period under review.

Radda said the councils spent ₦376.6 million on security requests; ₦4 billion on direct running of the councils, ₦15.1 billion on various projects and ₦360 million on instructional materials.

Other expenditures included ₦1.5 billion for foreign and local scholarships; ₦933.8 million for Hajj operation, ₦6.14 billion for food palliatives, and ₦3.1 billion for palliative care for local governments, LEAs staff and stakeholders during the Sallah celebrations.

While ₦3.84 billion was spent on the procurement of fertilisers and N1.19 billion on agrochemicals.

“This is not exhaustive but represents monies sent directly to the local governments’ accounts. It is an inseparable part of the policy implementation,” he said.

Radda reiterated their commitment to the respect of the rule of law and enjoined the citizens to be law-abiding.

“I will respectively 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 government,” he said.

He, however, expressed concern about how some critical engagement of the local government councils would be affected.

“The salaries of teachers under SUBEB, local government worker’s salaries, pensions/gratuities, and deductions for emirate councils.

“The fate of the Local Government Service Commission and Local Government Pension Board has become uncertain,” he said.