WOLE BALOGUN, Ado Ekiti

 

The governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, on Tuesday signed eight bills into law, saying his government will continue to demonstrate strong political will in the implementation of the existing laws in the state. He also urged the 25 legislators, many of whom belonged to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to defend his government before the people of the state, saying: “The crowning glory in politics is not the exit but what we have left behind while leaving.

“I want to urge that the culture of belonging to Ekiti party that you are all exemplars of, should continue because leadership is influence.”

Fayemi spoke in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday while signing the bills into laws, marking the end of the legislative duties of the 5th Ekiti Assembly.

The bills are Ekiti State Development and Investment Promotion Agency Law 2019, Ekiti State Administration of Civil Justice Law 2019, College of Agriculture and Technology Re-enactment Law 2019.

Others are Ekiti State Logo Re-enactment Law 2019, Ekiti State Local Government Administration Law 2019, Ekiti State Property Protection and Anti-land grabbing Law 2019, Ekiti State Security Trust Fund Amendment Law 2019 and Ekiti State Waste Management Authority Repeal Law 2019.

The sixth assembly will be inaugurated tomorrow, June 6, by Governor Fayemi.

The governor assured that the laws would be implemented for the overall development of the state.

Speaking about the robust relationship he enjoyed with the lawmakers, who are mainly members of PDP, Fayemi said: “History is made in different forms, but I consider our partnership as a historic partnership not minding that many of you come from the PDP while the executive that took over October 16, 2018, is from the APC.

“Some believed that the two parties can’t have point of engagement, but this was not so. I always talked about belonging to Ekiti and that is what you have done.

“I cannot recall any time in the last 20 years when eight bills were signed into laws; so this is significant and these are laws that are important to our state.

“The Administration of Civil Justice law was pioneered by Ekiti. Some of the laws like land grabbing law will help us tackle some of our challenges with landowners.

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Meanwhile, the Assembly has ordered the 16 suspended local government chairmen to refund N3.6 billion to the state treasury.

The lawmakers said the order was predicated on the report of a panel which indicted the council chairmen of mismanaging the cash.

The Assembly in a resolution ordered the suspended chairmen to refund the N3.6 billion into the coffers of the state government and also recommended appropriate sanctions against them.

The PDP members opposed the recommendation for the sanction claiming that the screening was full of irregularities.

They were, however, overruled by the Speaker, Mr Adeniran Alagbada, who claimed that the chairmen went too far in their actions.

Alagbada cited the example of his council, Ise/Orun, where over N300 million was set aside for the building of secretariat but the contract was not executed.

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Meanwhile, the chairmen and members of three commissions nominated by Governor Fayemi were screened and confirmed by the House.

The commissions are, House of Assembly Service Commission, Civil Service Commission and State Independent Electoral Commission.

All members of the House of Assembly commission headed by Chief Taiwo Olatubosun, were only asked to take a bow and leave having served at one point or the other as members of the house.

The Assembly ratified Justice Jide Aladejana as the Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission and former Head of Service, Mr. Bunmi Famosaya, as the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission.

Other members of the commissions also sail through having proved their high level of integrity and diligence to the House.