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.
Enugu Assembly suspends member over withheld allowances
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Wednesday, April 15, 2015
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