Ogun State House of Assembly opens for plenary
The controversial
lawmakers of the troubled Ogun State House of Assembly known as the
G-12 yesterday made a dramatic and controversial return into the House
of Assembly where they held a plenary and allegedly approved the 2011
Appropriation Bill of N1.5 billion.
NEXT gathered that
the lawmakers arrived the complex at about 10.25am accompanied by
security men and headed into the chambers where they sat for about two
hours.
During his recent
two-day official visit to the state, the President, Goodluck Jonathan,
did not make any comment over the unresolved crisis between the
legislative and executive arm of government. Journalists were barred
from witnessing the sitting, but Ayo Giwa, Chief Press Secretray to the
factional Speaker, Soyemi Coker, later issued a press statement at
about 3.00pm informing newsmen that the lawmakers had approved the
budget.
He said the
breakdown of the figure showed that a sum of N42,756,822,000:00k was
appropriated for recurrent expenditure, N14,140,800,000:00k for
servicing of loans, pension and gratuities while N48,654,844,284:00k
was for capital expenditure.
The release added
that Mr Coker noted with appreciation, the painstaking efforts of the
Inspector-General of Police to re-open the House for plennary
notwithstanding the long closure due ostensibly to a desire to uphold
the rule of law and security of lives and property.
Mr Coker in the
statement stressed that despite the closure of the House of Assembly
Complex, other legislative duties in form of committee sittings and
oversight functions were performed.
He said the House also passed a resolution endorsing the bid of Mr Jonathan to emerge as President in the April 2011 elections.
As at the time of
filing this report, it was not clear whether the re-opening of the
Assembly complex was on the order of the Presidency, or
Inspector-General of Police.
The Assembly had been under lock since September, 2010 following the
controversy which trailed the sudden emergence of nine out of the 26
lawmakers announcing the sack of other 15 members. The nine lawmakers
have since been joined by three other members from the sacked 15.
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