Kaduna Assembly suspends three local government chairmen.

On Tuesday, the Kaduna State House of Assembly took the decision to suspend three local government chairmen in the state – Kaura, Kagarko, and Chikun – due to allegations of financial misappropriation.

The suspension was based on accusations that the chairmen had awarded contracts without adhering to the Kaduna State Public Procurement Law of 2016, Section 35 Subsection 23, which requires due process.

To investigate the matter thoroughly, the assembly assigned the member representing Lere East, Munirat Sulaiman Tanimu, as the ad-hoc committee chairman. The committee focused on examining the financial activities of five local government areas: Chikun, Kaura, Kagarko, Soba, and Birnin Gwari. The affected chairmen were summoned to submit various 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.

Upon reviewing the provided documents, the committee discovered that the chairmen of Kaura, Kagarko, and Chikun had violated Section 48 of the Local Government Administration Law of 2018 and Section 35 Subsection 25 of the Kaduna State Public Procurement Law of 2016. These sections pertain to budget compliance and adherence to the state’s public procurement regulations.

Consequently, the committee recommended that the three chairmen vacate their offices for the next six months to allow for further investigation. Additionally, they were directed not to be present at the local government secretariats during this period and are required to hand over their responsibilities to their respective vice chairmen.