The Lagos State Governor Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has been called upon to appear and properly present the 2019 budget to the Lagos State House of Assembly in line with provision of the Constitution.
The Speaker of the House Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa made this call on Thursday in Lagos during plenary while reacting to the presentation of the 2019 appropriation bill by the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode through a letter dated December 17, 2018 and received by the House on December 28, last year.
According to the Speaker “We are ready to receive the budget any time it is properly presented to the House in line with provision of the constitution”.
He stated further that, “We have a stake beyond May 28, 2019. We have a stake with the people of the state and Democracy”
Obasa noted that it is the usual practice for the House to proceed on six weeks break every December to resume by early January but that it was deliberately delayed to enable the Governor to present the Budget but that the Governor did not present the Budget until the House proceeded on recess on December 18, 2018.
Earlier Majority Leader Sanai Agunbiade said the Constitution stipulates that the Governor will come forward and lay the Budget before the House before the beginning of the next Calendar year.
According to him, the House was ready to sacrifice its time to deliberate on the Budget but that the Budget did not come.
He decried insinuations making the rounds that the House deliberately did not want to act on the Budget saying, the House cannot act on the Budget if it not properly laid and presented in line with the Constitution.
Hon Oluyinka Ogundimu wondered why the Governor sent a correspondence to the House on December 28, 2018 three days to New Year when the House was on recess, adding that the governor should do the needful by presenting the Budget to the House as required by law.
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