A chieftain of the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) in Offa, Kwara, Mr Lola Ashiru, has called for the abolition of state and local government joint account.

Ashiru, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011, made the call on Thursday in Ilorin in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He said local government areas would not develop unless state and local government joint account was abolished.

While decrying the deplorable state of local government areas in the country, Ashiru attributed the reason to the state/local government account.

He cited Offa as one of the local government areas in the state that had challenges of development in terms of infrastructure.

Ashiru, an architect, was of the view that each local government should manage funds accruing to it from the Federation Account.

"If local governments were given their full allocation from the Federation Account, development would be rapid as they would have enough funds to execute projects.

"Everything has value and there is value in joint account, but the way it is allocated and utilised is not the best of practice.

"If I have joint account with you, what it means is that it is my account, it is your account and I will participate in the running of that account," he added.

Ashiru also criticised the way local governments were being operated in the country.

"Local governments are supposed to be an important arm of government but unfortunately in Nigeria, we have diminished it into a non-functional arm of government," he said. (NAN)