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Akwa Ibom House of Assembly unfit to be an arm of government –CLO

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The Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), has described the State House of Assembly as being too weak to be an arm of government in a democratic setting.

The State Chairman of the CLO, Otuekong Franklyn Isong, who stated this in Uyo on Thursday, December 10, said the state’s 7th Assembly lacks the initiative in carrying out its oversight functions, insisting that the “House merely passes motions to approve loans for the Executive without monitoring the utilization of such funds.”

Isong lamented the legislature’s inability to unravel the allegation that it received N1.057 billion for constituency projects as indicated in the annual report of the Accountant General of the State.

Isong who is also a journalist and public affairs commentator in the state, said that the “act of setting up committees by the legislature to probe the report after it became public knowledge was just a crying shame.”

In a statement issued by the CLO, Isong said:

“From the Accountant General’s report, government claimed to have given the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly the sum of N1.057b for constituency projects.

“Now, we have not seen any of these projects on ground, and the House waited for this to become public knowledge before reacting?

“It means that each of the 26 state constituencies may have smiled to the bank with N40.6m. Now, show us what you have been able to do with the money.

“For me, the 7th Assembly is tied to the apron strings of the Executive. They only pass motions authorizing the Executive to receive loans, without monitoring how the loans were utilized.

“If you attend their sittings, you would see that the Assembly is no longer interactive because of the quality of men there.”

Read also: Akwa Ibom Assembly confirms eight commissioner-nominees

The CLO also berated the Assembly over non-implementations of recommendations by members of the public during public hearings, noting that observations around the ongoing worship center which he said was not meant to be built with public funds, were ignored by the Assembly.

According to him:

“The 7th Assembly is now like one of the MDAs of government; it is no longer fit to be considered an arm of government. Look at the people working on budget, they have no clear cut understanding of what they are doing.

“They go for oversight functions but cannot ask relevant questions. Members no longer have the boldness to query the issues they are not comfortable with, just because they do not want to be starved of funds.”

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