Chinelo Obogo
In response to allegations that the House of Assembly has collected almost N29 billion from the executive, as running cost, in the last three years, Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade, said the chamber would not be blackmailed by those he described as ‘Fifth Columnists’ who want to discredit assembly.
Speaking immediately after an emergency parliamentary session yesterday, Agunbiade said the position of the Assembly has not changed, insisting that governor Ambode must lay the budget on the floor of the House as required by the constitution or face impeachment.
Agunbiade said: “We state clearly that, yesterday, about five groups paid a visit to the Assembly, to plead with the House not to impeach the governor. We responded by telling them the major issue is the 2019 Appropriation Bill, which, by now, should have been in the House of Assembly. The stipulation in the constitution is that the bill, which the governor shall cause to be prepared and laid on the floor of the House, should be done before the commencement of another fiscal year, which is December 2018.
“Unless the appropriation bill has been laid before and passed by the House, there is no budget. Budget estimate is to be considered and passed by the legislature before any government can start spending out of it. Efforts were made, and we were willing to receive it, but, till date, it has not been laid. We, then, discovered the executive was already spending out of a budget that has neither been presented or passed by the legislature. Before this time, we found some infractions in the 2018 budget, where we discovered that some expenditures were made without the approval of the Assembly and we needed clarification.
“The constitution stipulates that when you must have presented the budget and the House is considering it, you can spend out of it. But, you can’t spend out of a budget that you have not presented.
“Many false allegations have been made against us. Some fifth columnists have alleged that the issue between the legislature and the executive is because lawmakers want the governor to fund their campaigns. How can lawmakers want the governor to fund their individual campaigns? We have one People’s Democratic Party (PDP) member among us, does it mean that the governor will also fund his campaign? Most of these allegations do not have real names attached to them and that shows they are not genuine. The issue we are talking about is the budget; what has that got to do with our campaigns? It is fallacy. All the allegations against us are false. It is an attempt to discredit us, but it will not work.
“If we had wanted war, we would not have given a window for the governor to explain his actions. It is left to him to shut the window at us and tell us he is not interested. If these infractions continue with impunity and nothing is done, we would apply the strict position of the constitution, which is impeachment. If you say the House cannot impeach, the public should also tell the governor to do the needful, to avoid impeachment. We are expecting the governor to come and explain why the budget has not been presented. Should we say because his tenure will soon end, the budget will not be passed?
“Last week Monday, there were reports that the governor sent his advanced team to the Assembly, but the lawmakers were not willing to receive him. That is a lie. There is a parliamentary tradition and procedure that precedes the laying of a budget. You cannot just send an advance team to the Assembly without us knowing about it. We are speaking out because the public has been fed with false information. If Ambode does not come to defend himself, and the infractions continue, the appropriate sanctions stipulated by the constitution for non-compliance will be applied.”