At least 18 out of the 26 Members of the Ondo State House of Assembly have condemned the illegal budget reordering by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in connivance with the impeached Speaker, Bamidele Oleyeloogun and 7 others.
According to them, Governor Akeredolu on the receipt of the Paris Club Refund whose sum he has not disclosed hurriedly connived with impeached Speaker and the few members loyal to him and invaded the House with the support of members of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW and reordered the budget to include the refund in the 2018 appropriation law.
Araoyinbo Olugbenga, Majority Leader of the Ondo State House of Assembly and in company of other Members who stated this while briefing journalists in Abuja, said Minority Members cannot reordered budget so speedily even as government urged and induced them financially.
Olugbenga noted that there were spending incurred outside the existing 2018 appropriation law and they asked to be allowed to vet the budget performance for proper accountability in line with rules of the House but the government rather than oblige, became jittery.
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He said, “it is a violation the new leadership of the Assembly would never allow to stand. Whatever the Majority Leader posits remains the the position of the House. Hon. Araoyinbo as the Majority Leader would not join the few cat paws to swindle Ondo State.
“Even if Oloyeloogun and his cohorts would paint the situation as ideal, we know that our people would perceive the lies embedded in the sounds of fury presented as a defense/ justification for hurriedly passing a reordering of the 2018 appropriation law of Ondo State.
“The impeached Speaker and suspended leadership have been too compromising against the interest of the masses. All the invasions done to ensure the forceful passage of the governor’s reordering is in direct connection with the NURTW illegal activities in the hallowed chambers”.
While accusing the Governor of interfering with the State Assembly, Olugbenga said, “the government has always denied having hands in the affairs of the ODHA but the people will only see this as a pure lie and it is so. Protecting a few Assembly Members to perpetrate actions inimical to the interest of our people cannot be ignored”.
The Majority Leader alleged that, “the role of the NURTW in the present administration is utterly at variance with the good governance expected under a democratic rule government particularly under a government being headed by a senior minister in the temple of justice.
” In the annals of democratic governance in Ondo State, we have never experienced such a desecration not only in the House of Assembly but a whole arm of government, its hallow chambers by the NURTW members and thugs.
“We appeal to the present Government in Ondo State not to take us back to the bad old days where impunity, absolute disregards for the rule of law and due process were the order of the day”.
