Enugu Assembly suspends member over withheld allowances

Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly on Tuesday suspended the Chairman of the Finance
and Appropriation Committee, Johnbull Nwagu, for allegedly colluding with the executive to withhold the payment of their March overhead allowances.

It was gathered that the alleged delay in the payment of the allowance was due the lawmakers’ recent refusal to approve an N11bn loan sought by Governor Sullivan Chime.

The lawmakers, who suspended Nwagu at a plenary session on Tuesday, equally threatened to order the arrest of the State Accountant-General, Mr. Pascal Okoye, if he fails to appear before the House on Wednesday.

At the commencement of the session, House Leader, Sunday Ude-Okoye, announced that Nwagu had told another member, Iloabuchi Aniagu, that the lawmakers woukd not receive their March overhead allowances for daring to reject the proposed N11bn loan.

He also accused Nwagu of failing in his duties as the chairman of the Finance and Appropriation Committee.

“As Chairman of the Finance and Appropriation Committee, Nwagu, who represents Udi North, should follow budget implementation and report back to the House but he has failed in his duty.

“I am very angry that Nwagu has been going about telling us that he is close to the executive arm of government,” Ude-Okoye said before moving a motion for Nwagu’s suspension for two months.

The member representing Enugu East, Edward Ubochi, suggested that rather than suspend Nwagu from the House, he should be removed as chairman of the Finance and Appropriation Committee.

But other members, who spoke during the debate that ensued over the motion, insisted that Nwagu must be suspended in order to address the negative public perception of the House as a rubber stamp of the executive arm.

Nwagu was eventually suspended after 12, out of the 18 members of the House, voted in favour of his suspension.

In a related development, the House also on Tuesday passed a resolution, condemning the allocation of the land adjacent Enugu State House of Assembly Complex to a foreign firm for the construction of a shopping mall.