Chinelo Obogo

Following months of tension between the Lagos State House of Assembly and Governor Akinwumi Ambode over the 2019 Appropriation Bill, the House yesterday passed the budget of N873,532, 460,725 into law.

The House approved N393,841,387,020 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for recurrent expenditure and N479,691,073,705 from Development Revenue Fund for capital expenditure.

This is an increase by N21.215 billion from the budget presented by Governor Ambode on February 5, which was N852.317 billion. It is also a decrease from last year’s budget which stood at N1,046 trillion.

The passage followed the adoption of the report and recommendations of the House Ad hoc Committee on Budget and Economic Planning, headed by Gbolahan Yishawu.

The House passed the bill into law after Speaker Mudashiru Obasa had conducted a voice-vote on each of the allocations for ministries, departments and agencies.

He then directed the Clerk, Azeez Sanni, to send a copy of the passed Appropriation Law to the governor for signature.

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The Assembly had been embroiled in a face-off with Governor Ambode since December 2018 for refusing to lay the the Appropriation Bill on the floor of the House which led lawmakers to threaten him with impeachment if he failed to abide by the parliamentary tradition.

During one of its plenary sessions at the beginning of the year, over 20 lawmakers took turns in accusing the governor of infractions and violation of the constitution for spending from the 2019 budget which at the time was yet to be laid on the floor of the House.

Earlier this year, a committee, headed by the Deputy Speaker, Wasiu  Eshinloku, was set up to probe the 2018 expenditure of the governor. As a result, Commissioner for Finance, Accountant General, Budget and Planning Commissioner as well as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice were summoned to appear before the probe panel.

While submitting the report of the committee before the House, the deputy speaker said his panel found Ambode guilty of the allegations against him and said he should either resign or be impeached.

Eshinlokun revealed that the committee met with relevant commissioners and heads of agencies and was told by the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Segun Banjo, that no money had been spent for the year.

He also said the accountant general told the committee that they were given the go-ahead to spend up to 25 percent of the 2019 budget before the approval in the new year. He said they would have to make a recourse to the House if they wanted to spend up to N200 million.

The crisis further deepened when on Wednesday, January 30, the House convened an emergency parliamentary session over the matter. Immediately after the session, the Majority Leader, Sanai Agunbiade, told journalists at a press conference that the House is expecting Governor Ambode to appear before it on Monday, February 4, 2019 to explain why the executive had begun spending from a budget which was yet to be presented.