The African Action Congress in Gombe State has criticised Governor Muhammadu Yahaya’s move to create 13 new Local Council Development Areas, describing it as “decentralisation without accountability” and questioning where the funds to run them would come from.
Arewa PUNCH reports that Gombe already has 11 local government areas.
However, only recently, the Senate committee on constitutional review embarked on a public hearing in North-east where stakeholders demanded the creation of additional LGAs and states from the existing structures.
The state Chairman of the party, Bobo Bagwiba, while reacting to a press release from the Director-General of Press Affairs, Government House Gombe, which announced that the governor had sent the LCDA bill to the State House of Assembly, said the decision by the statement government was unnecessary.
“This is being presented as a historic step to bring governance closer to the people. But let us shine our eyes. This move is coming at a time when the state government has refused to account for the billions of naira from the federal allocations given to our existing local government areas for years,” Bagwiba said.
Citing Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution and the Supreme Court decision in A.G. Lagos State v. A.G. Federation (2004), Bagwiba stressed that LCDAs can not receive direct federal allocations unless the Constitution is amended.
“In other words, these LCDAs will not bring in new funds — they will only share from the same money that is already being mismanaged,” he stated.
The AAC boss further accused the state government of turning the state Joint Local Government Account into “a black hole where funds disappear under the control of the state government” and alleged that the new LCDAs were “a strategy to expand the political empire of the ruling APC in Gombe State — creating more caretaker positions for loyalists and more channels for looting public funds.”
Bagwiba called on the State House of Assembly to “challenge this bill to its core until full accountability for all previous LGA allocations is provided, and to demand public disclosure of monthly allocations and expenditures for all LGAs from January 2024 to date.”
According to him, “Gombe does not need more political appointees. It needs transparency, service delivery, and empowered communities.”
The AAC demanded the immediate publication of LGA allocations and expenditures from January 2024 to July 2025, the conduct of free and fair local government elections, and the inclusion in the LCDA bill of a clause limiting Interim Management Committees to six months. It also called for quarterly public reports of all LGA and LCDA spending.
“Decentralisation without accountability is deception. A government that hides how your money is spent can not claim to bring governance closer to you. Let’s us demand answers before expansion,” Bagwiba concluded.
