The much awaited report! N19bn loan divides Amosun, Ogun lawmakers.....Lawmakers demand N10million bribe, Amosun’s aide alleges .... It’s a lie, provide evidence — lawmakers By Ayo Fadimu Date Published 31/03/2014 A N19 billion loan request tabled before members of Ogun State House of Assembly by the Governor of the State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has brought sharp division between the state executive and the legislature. The lawmakers alleged that the governor is starving the house of funds as punishment for not approving the loan request. According to one of the lawmakers who spoke with Nigerian NewsDirect under condition of anonymity, the lawmakers said they refused to approve the loan because they feared the governor might use the money to prosecute his second term campaign and further plunge the state into heavier indebtedness. The lawmaker who spoke exclusively with Nigerian NewsDirect said the governor had incurred piles of debt for the State and granting him approval would add to the debt burden of the State. “We invited the Commissioner for finance (Kemi Adeosun) and Commissioner for Works (Lekan Adegbite) but the two of them cannot give us any satisfactory response.” Nigerian NewsDirect learnt that the Lawmakers were irked by the level of completion of some of the projects despite huge funds that had been released. “It is obvious that the loan demanded cannot complete the ongoing projects and many of them cannot even be completed before the next election, look at the issue of model schools being constructed by the governor, can he complete the construction before the new academic session? Why is he constructing them in bushes without providing hostels, this is very questionable?” the lawmaker told Nigerian NewsDirect. However, the governor through his media aide, Olusola Balogun said the lawmakers were just playing politics by trying to blackmail the governor. He specifically mentioned one of them, Hon Remmy Hazzan as being at the forefront to discredit the governor. While reacting to the allegation levelled against the governor, Balogun said, “This is a big lie coming from Remmy Hazzan and his like who first pushed it on facebook . The fact is that the governor has never defaulted in his duties to the House of Assembly. If there is any delay, it must be due to irregular allocation from Abuja, we all know the abracadabra that Abuja has been playing with allocation to States. For the record, Abuja just 10 days ago, released the February allocation to states. The Governor has been using IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) to pay workers’ salary and push the jobs” On the loan request by the governor, Balogun absolved his principal of any foul play, “There is no controversy in the N19billion loan request. Loan was one of the ways the 2014 budget was to be financed and the Assembly passed it, so the request for N19billion is just out of courtesy of the governor and typical of his transparency. The loan was already passed along with 2014 budget,” he insisted. However, two of the lawmakers who spoke with Nigerian NewsDirect over the bribery allegation, Yinka Mafe, Chairman, House Committee on Education and Hon Adeleke Salmon, Chairman, House Committee on transport denied the claim. “I am not aware” was the response the two of them to the Nigerian NewsDirect. Another lawmaker, Hon Allen Taylor said, “Have we not approved loan for him before, were we bribed then?”. On her part, Hon Adijat Oladapo-Adeleye challenged the governor to mention names of lawmakers who demanded bribe from him. Adijat, who said she had been out of the country added that the governor should back his allegation with evidence. “Let him mention the name(s) of the members that requested for money from him with evidence that they actually made the request” the lawmaker popularly called Iron Lady told Nigerian NewsDirect “The allegation is funny and it is one of the problems the legislators are having with the executive, I cannot remember offhand how many requests we have passed in the house, we were not asking for money then, so it is now that people are asking for more information about the financial situation of the State because if the running cost the House of Assembly’s supposed to get the same month is now being paid towards the end of another month, we think there is a problem” She continued, “Some of ministries and agencies are complaining that they don’t have running cost and we asked them, are you saying without this loan, the State cannot function? Another issue is that some of these projects are still around 10 per cent completion and you want to get another loan, we then ask him, how did you spend the loan we approved before?” “As I spoke with Majority Leader, he said something has been done in your constituency already, let them come and do something in my constituency, I, tell you, if care is not taken, some of these projects will become abandoned projects” said Adijat. When asked that an aide of the governor alleged that each Legislator receives N500,000 as weekend bonus, Hon Adijat retorted. “Quote me, that I, Hon Adijat said that Governor’s aide is a big liar from the pit of hell. He should mention those who collected N500, 000 every week. I have never collected such and in fact, I have never collected any money outside my official salary and allowances. All the constituency projects and empowerment that I did were from my salary and allowances.” “If the governor has any record that I collect any money outside my salary and allowance, let him tell the whole world.” On his part, Remmy Hazzan in his response through a text message wrote “Tell him, (Governor Amosun) to prove it as we continue to insist that the state can no longer cope with additional debt even as the Commissioner of finance is yet to avail the OGHA (Ogun State House of Assembly) with documents that will point in the direction of debt sustainability. The onus of proof is on him that alleges.” Efforts to get across to the Speaker, Hon Suraj Adekunbi, and the Spokesman of the House, Hon Ola Ojodu proved abortive as two of them neither responded to the text message sent to their phones nor answer several calls made by our correspondent. - See more at: newsdirectonline/newstory.php?ID=6489#sthash.sa2dBOl9.dp
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 12:59:00 +0000
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