By Austin Ogwuda
DELTA State Governor, RT Hon Sheriff Oborevwori has broken silence over the landmark Judgment on local government autonomy by the Supreme Court, saying he was not perturbed since he has no knack for constituting Caretaker Committees or involved in the tampering of their funds.
He spoke Saturday when he went to cast his vote at Unit 33, Osubi Ward 6 in Okpe Local Government Area of the State in exercise of his franchise in the ongoing local government elections across the twenty five local government areas of Delta State, Nigeria.
According to him, “When I came in I did not constitute Transition Committees here in Delta State because I am not in support of Transition Committees and the Heads of Personnel Management (HPMs) were in charge for three months to enable us conduct elections and today, by the grace of God, we are having our elections and early next week, those who won would be sworn in.
“The Supreme Court Judgment has no effect here in Delta State because we don’t tamper with local government funds.
As a former Speaker, we were in the forefront of the issue of autonomy for the Legislature and the Judiciary. So, that judgment does not affect us here in Delta State.
“In the past, the State Government cleared monies owed by Local Governments in the State. JAAC (the Joint Accounts Allocation Committee) is just a monitoring process to ensure transparency”, Governor Oborevwori stated.
On the ongoing local government polls, the governor assured that it was being carried out in a transparent manner.
Said he, “When we (PDP) did the grand finale of our rally in Asaba I said that we want free and fair elections and that is what we are doing now.
“I came through that same process of free and fair elections and with all the opposition, I won by a very wide margin.
“I have been up since monitoring the process and now I am here to cast my vote and having cast my vote, I am sure that the PDP will be victorious by the grace of God.
“This election is a litmus test for 2027 elections which will show whether we are doing well in line with our MORE Agenda or not. For now, we are not borrowing to execute any project. We are doing our best for Deltans and we will continue to do more in the coming years”, he added .