Warri North Lawmakers Debunk Report Of Attack, Embezzlement Of Funds Levelled Against Council Boss, Asekutu

The Warri North Local Government Council Legislative Arm has refuted claims that some councillor assaulted the council’s chairman, Hon. Smart Asekutu, over an alleged embezzlement of funds. This claim had already been refuted earlier.

According to the report, the Councillors broke into the Chairman’s private home in Sapele on a Sunday and attacked him. The claim that the Councillors had physically assaulted the Council Chairman, Hon. Asekutu, had earlier been denied.  

Additionally, he refuted the claim of embezzlement and said that the small disagreement between him and the councillors was caused by some of the councillors believing mistakenly that they were entitled to a Constituency project of N5 million rather than the N2 million that the state had approved.

In a joint statement, the Leader and Members of the Warri North Local Government Council Legislative House denied any involvement on the part of the lawmakers in the alleged report published by the online media outlet, which also included a fake video.

The statement was dated December 12, 2022 and was signed by Hon. Fetimi Hossanah Perepate, Chairman, House Committee on Information and Orientation, Warri North Legislative House, Koko. Its title read, “To Whom It May Concern’: Re – Councillors Beat Delta Council Chairman Over Alleged Embezzlement of Fund.”

The statement reads: “The attention of the Warri North Legislative Houses of Delta State has been drawn to a most spurious and scandalous post with the above heading dated 20th November, 2022, currently online, made by a faceless group masquerading as online news media, wherein deliberate malicious effort was made to paint the Councillors of the Warri North Legislative House with the brush of odium by asserting that the Distinguished Honourable Members descended to the Hobbesian state of nature ‘..where all is at war with all…’ by ‘beating’ the Chairman of Warri North Local Government Council!

“The obnoxious publication did not only depict the legislators in very bad light, it also made effort to malign the person and office of the Chairman of Council Hon. Smart Asekutu by making several unsubstantiated claims and accusations of embezzlement against the Chairman and attributing the accusations and claims to Honourable Councillors. This is not only malicious, it is aimed at throwing the entire Local Government Area into chaos. These claims are not only untrue, they are unfounded!

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Legislative House is statutorily empowered by Law to oversight all financial dealings of the Executive Arm of Government of the Council and the current cordial working relationship with the Executive Arm of Government led by Hon. Smart Asekutu notwithstanding, the Warri North Legislative House will not shy away from its constitutional responsibility, but will promptly undertake a thorough scrutiny of Council books at the earliest presentation of evidence of the likelihood of financial impropriety on the part of the Executive Arm of the Warri North Local Government Council.

“The House therefore urge the general public to disregard the post in its entirety as it is baseless and unfounded falsehood, and wish to add that should there be any information for the consumption of the general public, the House standing Committee on information would adequately and accurately so circulate.

“For, and on behalf of the Leader and Members of the Warri North Legislative House”

In a telephone chat with our correspondent over the public statement issued by the Legislative House, the leader of the Warri North Local Government Council Legislative Arm, Hon. Johnbull Jeyema Urunmatsoma, confirmed the position of the Councillors, describing that purported report as false, just as he said that the said report which was also duplicated by some local electronic media platforms, did not emanate from the  Council’s Legislative House.

According to the Leader, the Council chairman was neither assaulted nor accused of embezzlement by the Councillors, adding that the report was ill-motivated and did not originate from the lawmakers.

Jeyema however stated that the little disagreement between the Councillors and the Council chairman, which had to do with a wrong opinion expressed by the Councillors that they were entitled to N5 million instead of N2 million, has been resolved, especially having known the true position.

His words: “We Councillors of Warri North Local Government Council are law-abiding people.  Nobody beat up the Local Government chairman and I don’t know where that report emanated from.

“There was nothing like that.  Nobody touched the Local Government chairman.  And that is the true position.  That report was false, nobody did that.”

As for the allegation of embezzlement leveled against the chairman in the purported report, Urunmatsoma said that the Councillors had no monetary issue with the Council chairman, adding that the purported report was the handiwork of a mischievous individual who did not have the backing of the Legislative Arm.

“I don’t know anything about such money. The person who did that report did it on his own.  The report is not from the Councillors at all. We don’t know where that report emanated from.  The little argument between the chairman and the Councillors have been resolved”, the Leader of the Legislative House said.

An interview with a cross section of stakeholders from Warri North over the development point to the allusion that some persons outside the Council may have been involved in a clandestine move to cause confusion and chaos to truncate the enduring peace which the Council Chairman, Hon. Asekutu has put in place in the area since his emergence.

Chief Bestman Kolokowei, a politician and activist from Warri North, while fielding questions from our correspondent, queried why it took the Councillors nearly one month to discountenaced the content of that malicious report against the Council Chairman. 

Kolokowei noted that the lawmakers rank would have been infiltrated by some external forces outside the Council just to forment trouble at this critical moment when the elections are just around the corner.

He advised the Councillors to be circumspect of those envious of the achievements of the Council since the chairman, Hon. Smart Asekutu came on board.

“Why did it take the Councillors nearly a month to realize that their good names were being dragged to the mud by some faceless individuals who sponsored that obnoxious publication?

“You could see that the authors of that publication were not even aware that it was the magnanimity of the Council Chairman that made him to increase the so-called Constituency project fund from the N2 million approved by the government to N3 million. So, you could also see that those pushing for N5 million as alleged in that report were either ignorant or were actually being mischievous”, Kolokowei said.