Kaduna Assembly suspends three LG chairmen

 The Kaduna State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, suspended three local government chairmen in the state; Kaura, Kagarko, and Chikun, over alleged financial misappropriation.

The three local government chairmen were suspended after they were accused of awarding contracts without following due process, according to Kaduna State Public Procurement Law of 2016, Section 35 Subsection 23.

Following the resolution on July 18, 2023, and the mandate given by the assembly, a member representing Lere East, Munirat Sulaiman Tanimu, was directed to serve as ad-hoc committee chairman on the investigation, thoroughly scrutinised the financial activities of five local government areas: Chikun, Kaura, Kagarko, Soba, and Birnin Gwari the committee invited the affected chairmen to provide financial documents, including bank statements from June 2022 to June 2023, departmental vault account (DVA), approved budgets for 2022 and 2023, capital and recurrent expenditures for the respective years, and a list of awarded contracts and their levels of completion, among others.

However, after studying the documents, the committee found that the chairmen of Kaura, Kagarko and Chikun had contravened Section 48 of the Local Government Administration Law of 2018 and Section 35 Subsection 25 of the Kaduna State Public Procurement Law of 2016.

She said these sections outline the necessary compliance with budget allocations and the state’s public procurement regulations, adding that the committee recommended that the three chairmen vacate their offices for the next six months for further investigation.

They were also directed not to be present at the local government secretariats during this period and must hand over their responsibilities to their respective vice chairmen.