The Benue State House of Assembly on Wednesday recommended the suspension of the 23 LGA chairmen in the state for alleged misappropriation of funds.
Speaker of the house, Aondona Dajoh, announced their suspension during plenary after a consideration of the report of an ad hoc committee set up to investigate their income and expenditure report forwarded to it by the governor.
Dajoh said that the suspension became necessary in order to pave way for smooth and detailed investigation into the income and expenditure of the councils by the house.
The lawmakers also resolved to extend the investigation to cover the whole tenure of the local government councils, as they stressed that the three months report into the finances of the councils revealed serious infringements on the financial memorandum of local governments and other extant laws governing the management of funds at the third tier of government.
Earlier, Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Peter Ipusu, revealed that his committee discovered huge financial misappropriation by the 23 LGAs and therefore among other things recommended the house to pass a resolution calling on the governor to suspend all the councils in order to give way for a detailed investigation into their incomes and expenditures.
