Ogun State on Wednesday disclosed that all the 20 local government areas in the state received the sum of N3,433,534,037.71 as allocation from the Federal Allocation Account for the month of August.

The State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Moruf Afolabi Afuape, disclosed this during the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting with all Chairmen of the 20 local government areas in the state.

Afuape lamented that the state could not meet up with the financial obligations of the local governments, which he puts at N4.01bn.

He disclosed that all the local governments in the state were left with a deficit of N578,927,662.93

He said the local governments could not remit the monthly contributory pension of N201,738,504.96.

Cooperative and Loans of N124,387,601.55, PAYE of N178,266,766.07 and 5 per cent bond of N121,523,618.72 to cover up for the deficit.

We are back to the same thing almost every month, we have a shortfall of N578,927,662. And as such, some statutory payments could not be made”. 

“This explain why at times we are saying we are not paying PAYE to the state, we still owing some cooperative deductions because the money is not even enough to pay all these.

And if this (Federal allocation) is not enough to pay, there is no way any local government will be able to get any money”.

“It is a very transparent exercise and if anybody has any issue over this, you are free to challenge us, we are ready to defend it and that is the position we are for September 2021”.

We are not augmenting now because the money we got from the Federation Account, we can use it to pay statutory payments, but if we are to pay everything, the shortfall will have been N578m, but since we are not paying everything, we are dodging some payments.”

Reacting to the shortfall from the Federal Account Allocation Committee, the Chairman, Ijebu-Ode local government, Mr. Emilola Gazal called for review of allocation formula, saying that both the state and local governments should receive more money, because the two tiers of government are more closer to the masses compared to the federal government.