'One year and eight months after...' Ogun speaker explains why constituency projects are ignored

The Speaker, Ogun House of Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, on Wednesday, said that the lawmakers had yet to be paid their constituency project allowance since the commencement of the Ninth Assembly.

Oluomo stated this while responding to the submission of Mr Musefiu Lamidi (APM Ado-Odo-Ota II) during the plenary in Abeokuta.

He expressed concern over what he called misinformation in some quarters that members of the assembly had received their constituency project allowance but that they had failed to do the needful in their respective constituencies.

Oluomo stated that most projects embarked upon by the lawmakers in their various constituencies were being financed from their personal resources.

“We have spent one year and a few months now. No one has collected the constituency project allowance because of the economic situation of the country. Anything we might have done is from our sweat.

“The assembly will not hesitate to do the needful immediately we receive any money from the government.

“We will announce to the people immediately we receive money for constituency projects from the state government,” he said.

Lamidi had told the assembly that he had been accused by his constituents of collecting constituency projects allowance from the government but that he had refused to use the money accordingly.

He, however, appealed for caution by his colleagues with their constituents regarding the issue of constituency projects allowance.

Also at the plenary, Oluomo read Gov. Dapo Abiodun’s letter, calling for the elongation of the tenure of office for members of the Local Government Transition Committees in all the 20 council areas by three months.

The speaker, however, appealed to the governor to put machinery in motion to conduct local government elections, after the additional three months he was requesting.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Oluomo referred the governor’s letter to the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, for further action.