No Evidence Ondo LG Chairpersons Receive ₦5m To Run Councils — Commissioner

The Ondo State Government has refuted the claim that state council chairpersons receive $5 million to run the city’s affairs.

Idowu Ajanaku, the commissioner for information, made the statement on Wednesday’s episode of Channels Television’s The Morning Brief in response to an allegation that some councils do not receive their statutory funding.

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He claimed that there is no proof that the state government hacked into the council’s finances.

If councils didn’t run joint accounts with state governments, he added that the funding gap between local governments could be fixed.

Ajanaku claimed that “the Ondo State Government has never received a single penny from the state government,” according to Ajanaku.

Joint Account Problem

If councils didn’t run joint accounts with state governments, he explained, the gap in funding between local governments could be fixed.

The commissioner says that despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, there are still many constitutional issues that need to be resolved, including the issue of a joint account between local governments and the state, which has not yet been repealed due to delayed implementation of the Supreme Court decision.

Open to the public

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) are both interested in a probe of the LG accounts, according to the commissioner.

The government of Ondo State has no authority to change a penny in the Ondo State’s local governments’ accounts. I’m not sure where they learned that the Ondo State government is providing $4 million or $5 million in information.

Let them present proof, if they have it. And if any of these local government chairmen have filed that complaint, they should submit proof that they are doing so, he continued.

LG Autonomy

There are 18 local government areas in South-West Ohio.

In states, funding for councils has become a recurring issue because it is regarded as having the most cleavage of all forms of government.

Following a lawsuit brought by the Federal Government through the Federation’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, the Supreme Court granted autonomy to all the nation’s 774 local government areas in July 2024.

However, according to a former gusher of Lagos State, it is unrealistic to expect the local governments of Nigeria to operate independently under the current Constitution.

Local councils are unable to carry out their responsibilities because of the interference of state legislatures and state governments, according to Fashola, who spoke on Channels Television’s&nbsp, Sunrise on July 19, 2025.

The state houses of assembly making laws for local governments is a form of external influence, according to the former minister of power, works, and housing, that is incompatible with autonomy.

“I believe that the issue that needs to be resolved is whether or not we actually want autonomous local governments. It’s necessary to have a debate about this. It is unattainable to anticipate autonomy for local governments established by the Constitution today.

After reading through some of the Constitution’s provisions very carefully, I’m of the opinion that they were not intended to be autonomous. Some of those provisions, he said, include provisions that state legislatures make for local governments in their economic activities and all of that, he said.

Source: Channels TV