From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta

Moruf Afolabi Afuape, the Ogun State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, has disclosed that 20 Local Government Areas in the state shared the sum of N3,433,366,025.10 as revenue allocation from the Federal government for the month of August.

Afuape gave this disclosure on Wednesday during the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) meeting with the Chairmen of the 20 Local government areas in the state.

The commissioner lamented that the state could not meet up with the financial obligations of the Local governments, totalling N4.02 billion.

Afuape disclosed that the state was left with a deficit of N578,927,662.

He said the state could not also remit the monthly contributory pension of N201,738,504, cooperative and loans of N124,387,601, PAYE of N178,266,766 and 5 per cent bond of N121,523,618 to cover up for the deficit.

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‘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 explains 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 Abuja we can use it to pay statutory payments, but if we are to pay everything, the shortfall will have been N578 million, but since we are not paying everything, we are dodging some payments we are already in the positive of N46 million,’ the commissioner stated.