From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi

Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has signed the 2023 budget of N166.985 billion into law.

Bagudu signed the appropriate bill into law at the Government House in Birnin Kebbi, after it was presented to him by the House of Assembly Speaker, Muhammed Abubakar Lolo.

He said Kebbi State is not against local government autonomy, but that without expunging Section 7 out of the constitution, it will continue to remain under the state Houses of Assemble.

Speaking on the passage of the budget, Bagudu said it was under the All Progressives Congress government that the budget implementation was restored to January to December, as against prolonged delay of implementation.

While speaking on the local government autonomy and judiciary independence, Bagudu said Kebbi State was not against council autonomy and those states which did not favour the autonomy should not be blackmail.

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“Last week, we had a meeting with the speakers of all the Houses of Assemble on the constitution amendment and one of the thing we discussed is constitution amendment.

“It is the issue that means different things to different people and nobody should be blackmail. We collectively say there should be state policing because in each state of the federation, there are many security outfits that are operating.

“As we speaks, there is no legislation guiding their operations. What one state is doing is different from others,” he said.

He said National Assembly should also provide legislation that grants powers to  states Assembly to regulate the appointment, retirement age, and emolument of the judiciary officers.

“If the states Assembly can impeached governors, they should also have the power to remove anybody who is being paid by the state where he or she is working. We are not against local government autonomy… if the people are calling for council autonomy, they are calling for the Section 7 of the constitution to be amended which the National Assembly has not reviewed.

“As we speaks, that is not what the National Assembly did. If people are saying council should be credited from what is coming from the Federal Government, that is financial autonomy and I am not against it,” he said.