Jos North Councilors Decry Alleged Lopsided Payments Of Furniture Allowances By LGA, As Chairman, Bala Shehu Denies It

Yakubu Busari,Jos

The Executive Chairman of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, Hon. Shehu Bala Shehu has been alleged to be engaged in lopsided payments of furniture allowances, which are the same as,( statutory benefit ) to some selected members of the  Legislative Arm of local Government Council when he denied vehemently of having no knowledge of protest but was a swift reaction on principal officers complete agreement reached on how their member’s payment should be in batches.

The legislative Arm raised the concern after confirming from the appropriate authority that some selected members have already settled their furniture allowances ahead of the May,29th handing over ceremony.

It be would recall that due to this same action of the council Chairman, the legislative arm issued an impeachment warning against him after which they unanimously agreed to abort the impeachment last year on the ground, he denied some Councilors their entitlements.

That development did not go down well with some of the aggrieved Legislators as they  set to prove the Chairman wrong this time around ,”the statement read .

The statement blamed ,”Hon Shehu Usman Bala  of being biased in the payment of furniture allowances main as statutory benefits to all   the councilors when he only paid majority of his Muslim brothers and few boys of the SSG as alleged “.

In a leak letter of complain to the Commissioner Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affair Plateau State, the aggrieved Councilors seeks the intervention of the Commissioner of the Ministry for all their entitlements to be settled before the expiration of the APC Administration in the State.

“The Executive Chairman maliciously and secretly decided to settle 12 Ward Councilors and paid them  N500,000 each as furniture allowance around February 2023, and subsequently paid the sum of 1 million each to those same 12 Councilors this week again.

“All these were done secretly so that it will not come to the notice of the remaining 8 Ward Councilors whom are  left out. shady exercise ,they alleged “

The Chairman was accused of offsetting 8 out of the 9 councilors who are Muslim their entitlements while 4 others were of the Christian faith but denying 8 Councilors to  wallowed in object poverty.

However ,in swift reaction to the accusations labeled against him ,Hon.Shehu Bala Usman says ,first I never brought that ideas to discuss it with any of the councilors but the leaders of the legislative arm came to approached me that they be pay instalment and the  first instalment was 250,000.00 .

The legislative arm principal officers demanded that the statutory benefits payments should be change to enable them enjoy and make good use of the money .

According to them ,we want the money to be  pay in buck so that they won’t have issue  but in my own wisdom I explain to them the condition of leaned resources available to the council which can’t accommodate all of them at once so we have segment it in batches .

The agreement we all reach was that the first legislators would benefit 1.5 million each which the council was able to upset the payments of 500,000.00 and 1,000,000.00 as the phase 1 hoping to do same when funds is available ,he said .

Shehu denied that after sealing the discussion with the leadership some of them raised complained that they were sidelined in the sharing formula which is not true .

We had an emergency meeting with all the members of the legislative arm yesterday, Sunday and we all reached an agreement to suspend the method of payment, the leaders explained to them that it wasn’t the Chairman’s ideas but they brought it to table to allow all members to enjoy the furniture allowances and other entitlements before the expiration of the tenure,he said .

He stated that only 8 members of the legislative arm denied that they were not contacted by the leaders of the house before such a decision was enforced so they have to reverse the entire agreement which was taken during the sitting on Sunday .

As they refused that they were not consulted the house unanimously step down that agreement so we resolve to continue paying those who claim they were not consulted first so that is the development that took place yesterday Sunday ,21st of May,2023 at the council headquarters, he noted.

Shehu reiterated that,”All we are saying is that the council reverse it hence they were not consulted from beginning of the discussion before embarking on the said agreement reached but however, we promise to step aside from the leader’s decision to ensure that members benefited from the furniture allowances as enshrine in the constitution “,.

The leader of the legislative arm ,Hon .Yakubu Itse confirmed to this medium the view of the Chairman ,Hon Shehu Usman Bala that he wasn’t aware of the decision but they suggested to him on how their members would make good use of the money if payments are to be made at once .

Itse disclosed that ,actually what really transpired was that such a decision was brought by the leadership but due leaned resources some selected members protested the action.

We are appealing to them to remain calm everyone must be pay because that is their statutory benefit and nobody can deny them, the Chairman tried to clear everybody but the resources is not there and the biggest challenge now is nonavailability of cash so we all arrange to be pay in batches.

We are calling on our colleagues especially the legislative arm of Jos North LGA that whatever main to them we  share to them they’re going to benefit in it ,those complaining now should understand that their payment is underway soon.

The entitlement is mandatory but the resources is not on ground but we assure them of definite payment , Hon Yakubu Itse confirmed.