ABEOKUTA – THE Ogun State House of Assembly has alleged that theExecutive attempted to bribe it with N 1 Billion to facilitate thepassage of its request for approval of a N100 billion Bond.
The House however said that the approval of the Bond request would only be obtained after an open debate with members of the executive onthe propriety of the Bond.
Speaking at an Executive Session of the House after receiving the report of the Finance and Appropriation Committee, the Speaker; Mr.Tunji Egbetokun said “I have been personally offered goodies which Irefused. I have been offered N12 million for a single meeting by one oftheir peacemakers.
“We have been offered N1 billion but I have said that they should allow a single debate on all the issues in contention on the Bond and Ican assure them that we will move straight from the venue of the debateto plenary and pass it if we are convinced. We should have an opendebate. Let them sit with us and we will bow to superior argument, butin the absence of superior argument, the Executive should bow”
On the issue of Supplementary appropriation, the Speaker said that the House was rejecting the Bill saying that according to the findingsof the Finance committee what was needed was a realignment of theBudget.
“If they spend contrary to the Budget, it is misappropriation. All they are requesting for in the Supplementary Budget have been takencare of in the 2010 Budget”
On the non release of the funds of the House, members agreed that they should do all that could be done legally and constitutionally toensure the release of the funds even including going to Abuja.
Egbetokun explained that despite the non release of the fund of the House, Governor Daniel has spent almost N1 billion for his office asagainst the N700 million approved in the Budget.
Earlier presenting the report of the Finance Committee, Mr. Job Akintan explained that the Bond was broken down to 2010; N26 billion,2011; N34 billion and 2012; N40 billion adding that all the projectslisted to be financed or refinanced by the Bond have been given to theHouse before as to have been financed by Federal Allocation andInternally Generated Revenue in the 2010 Budget.
He said “we got debt cancellation of N26 Billion and just about three years after we are now saddled with debt of another N28 billion.And on this N28 billion, we are going to pay N48 billion in five years;so how much are we going to pay on N100 Billion Bond?
In her contribution, Mrs. Adijat Oladapo lamented that the Executive has refused to obey the law stipulating that all loans must be approvedby the House of Assembly adding that even without the approval, theState funds was been deducted from source every month to the tune ofN1.2 billion.
The Deputy Speaker; Mr. Remi Hazzan in his contribution said that the State Government has “been consistently inconsistent in theinformation been given out on the Bond issue at every occasion. Theyare desperately in need of the Bond”
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