By John Charles
The Benue State House of Assembly has commenced probe of the 23 suspended local government areas chairmen in the state.
However, it was learnt, on Tuesday, that some of the embattled LG chairs, failed to appear before the ad hoc committee set by the Assembly to conduct the probe.
The Assembly ad hoc committee had last week announced its invitation to the suspended council chairs to appear before it with all records of account from June 2022 to date.
Three suspended council chairmen of Guma, Michael Uba; Katsina-Ala, Alfred Atera; and Gboko, Isaac Mtom, were expected to appear before the committee on Monday but failed to appear.
It was gathered that only the council treasurers of the three LGAs appeared and were grilled by the committee members for hours.
It was gathered that the committee received financial documents from the treasurers of the councils, who took turns explaining the incomes and expenditures of their respective councils from June 2022 to June 2023.
The treasurer for Guma Local Government Council, Charles Iordye, told journalists that he was asked to submit all the bank statements and financial records of his council to the committee.
The committee chairman, Peter Ipusu, said members had commenced their investigation in earnest and had provided the suspended chairmen with an avenue to clarify the financial irregularities within the period under review.
The three-man ad hoc committee waited for several hours for the three council chairmen, but they did not turn up as scheduled.
Another three suspended council chairmen of Gwer West, Ohimini and Ushongo, and their treasurers are billed to appear before it today (Wednesday).
Meanwhile, four executive council members of the state chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria have been quizzed by the Director of State Security Service.
Our correspondent gathered that the exco members of ALGON in the state were invited for questioning on Monday.
The Security Adviser to Guma Local Government, Christopher Waku, who confirmed the invitation and subsequent detention of four of the exco members of the state ALGON, said that the suspended chairman of his local government had been invited and detained since Monday.
Waku said, “It is true that DSS invited some exco members of ALGON to the state, but they were later detained.”
Source: The Punch