Simon Ebegbulem
21 August 2008
Benin — THE Edo State House of Assembly, has ordered the state government to release within 48 hours, the withheld N6.5billion excess crude oil windfall accrued to the 18 Local Government Councils in the state for the months of June and July, 2008.
Describing the action of the state government as illegal, the lawmakers through a motion moved by the member representing Owan East constituency, Mr Fred Omogberai, declared that the state government had no right to give conditions to the councils before the funds are released to them.
However, Vanguard gathered that the state Governor, Professor Oserhiemen Osunbor had asked the Council Chairmen to present the list of projects to be executed with the funds before it would be released to them so as to ensure that the funds are used for people oriented projects.
Vanguard learnt however that the conditions did not go down well with the Chairmen who now appealed to the House members to come to their aid. It was further learnt that the money was lodged at Guaranty Trust Bank. The House members demanded for the full details of the said account while they ordered the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Augustin Momodu to report back to the House on the level of government compliance with the resolution.
Saiki Samuel who carpeted the state government further, regretted that "the Council Chairmen who are supposed to use the funds for the development of their areas are denied the opportunity of accessing the funds. Why should we be keeping such a huge amount of money in the bank when our people are in dire need of cash for developmental projects. This attitude is unacceptable to us and we request the state government to release the funds immediately so that work can start in the various councils."
On his part, the Speaker of the House, Mr Zakawanu Garuba requested that "all bank transactions relating to the excess crude oil windfall kept in the bank should be made available to the House. And the clean copies of this resolution should be sent to the Governor, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and the 18 Local Government Council chairmen."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
