By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics
Lagos State House of Assembly has insisted that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and some of his commissioners must appear before it to explain infractions on this year’s budget.
The position of the Assembly is that, should the infractions continue, it would apply constitutional provisions for punitive measure – impeachment.
Majority Leader Sanai Agunbiade who addressed reporters January 30, 2019, after an emergency meeting by the lawmakers said that nobody was witch-hunting the governor, as being insinuated in some quarters.
But he said that the violations were serious issues the Assembly could not just overlook.
It would be recalled that there was a massive protest on Wednesday at the Assembly by concerned Lagosians against the planned impeachment of Ambode.
On the protest, Agunbiade said that the Assembly was not against Ambode ending his tenure but that because of issues surrounding the budget, he was summoned by the Assembly and it was necessary he appears.
The situation compelled the lawmakers to go into an emergency parliamentary meeting after the protest.
Agunbiade said that the major contention was that Ambode had started spending from this year’s budget, which has not been laid before the Assembly, insisting that such action was against constitutional provisions.
Agunbiade said: “The budget is supposed to have been laid before the commencement of another fiscal year. This has always been the practice in the state. Unless it is laid, you cannot spend from it. But the governor has made expenditure from the budget.
“There are also some infractions the Assembly observed about the 2018 budget, the expenditure made outside the budget, which necessitated the invitation the Assembly extended to him and some commissioners to explain things.
“It is not witch-hunting, as some people believe. To make expenditure from the budget, you must have laid it before the Assembly. For now, we don’t have the budget. So, you can’t spend. As legislators, we must do things properly.”
