From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
Imo State lawmakers boycotted the 2018 budget presentation of Governor Rochas Okorocha, forcing him to postpone the annual budget proposal.
Last week, the state legislators cleared Okorocha’s list of commissioner nominees, several weeks after the list got to them for consideration.
Daily Sun gathered that the leadership of the Assembly only learnt of the 2018 budget presentation through a radio announcement. And so, when the governor’s advance team got to the Assembly complex, they met an empty chamber, which prompted postponement of the budget presentation.
However, in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Sam Onwuemeodo, said cancellation of the budget presentation was as a result large discrepancies discovered in the budget speech and, as a result, the 2018 budget presentation could not hold.
“With utmost regret, we wish to inform the public that the announced presentation of the 2018 budget to the Imo State House of Assembly by the Governor, Rochas Okorocha, fixed for Tuesday, November 28, 2017 could no longer hold, owing largely to disturbing discrepancies discovered in the budget speech.
“A new date for the budget presentation will, as usual, be made public. We regret this development. And, we appeal to all those concerned with the exercise to bear with us.”
