The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, has blamed the Senate for the non-resolution of the crisis in the Ogun State House of Assembly.
Bankole, at an interactive session with journalists in Abeokuta on Tuesday, said if the Senate had considered a resolution by the House, the crisis in the state assembly would have been long resolved.
The House had on October 14, 2010 passed a resolution directing the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, to open the “assembly within seven days and provide security to allow members under the leadership of the Speaker, Mr. Tunde Egbetokun, to perform their constitutional duties.”
Relying on “Section 11(4) of the 1999 Constitution which empowers it to intervenene when an assembly is unable to sit for 181 days each year,’’ the House warned that it would take over the functions of the assembly if the police failed to comply with its directive within seven days.
The Assembly was closed on September 6, 2010 when a group of nine lawmakers loyal to Governor Gbenga Daniel suspended Egbetokun, and 14 others known as the G-15, perceived to be against the governor.
Following the development, Egbetokun wrote letters to the Senate and the House of Representatives seeking their intervention in the crisis. He also requested that the Assembly be reconvened under his leadership.
But Bankole, who fielded questions from journalists at the Iwe Irohin secretariat of the Nigeria Union Journalists, Ogun State council, absolved the House of blame in the non-resolution of the crisis.
The speaker, who did not say if the House passed its resolution to the Senate for concurrence, added that in Edo and Ondo houses of assembly where similar crises happened, the House acted promptly by passing resolutions but the Senate failed to do the same.
He said, ‘If the House of Representatives passers a resolutions and the Senate fails to support such, the resolutions cannot be effective.
“It is our duty to make laws for good governance but not to enforce those laws and even in making laws, we also have our limitations.”
Efforts by one of our correspondents to speak with the Senate spokesman, Mr. Ayogu Eze, on Bankole’s claim proved abortive as calls to his telephone line indicated that it was switched off.
But the Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Dr. Olorunibe Mamora, said he was not aware that the House resolution on the Ogun assembly crisis was sent to the Senate.
“If the resolution was sent, it would have been read on the floor and a collective decision would have been taken on it,” he said.
Bankole also said on Tuesday that he considered the series of plots to impeach him as ‘a storm in a tea cup’ since no direct attempt had been made on the floor of the House to oust him.
Bankole said, ‘’I am not aware of any motion moved on the floor of the House to impeach the Speaker of the House of Representatives. If you have one please show me.
“But I am aware that gentlemen like you made (all) sorts of reports based on information you must have received, either from the House or otherwise.
“Until a motion is moved on the floor of the House and the normal process of impeachment followed (signatures and the rest of them), we cannot discuss the issue of impeachment. But I think what had happened in the past was more of storm in a team cup.’’
He also dismissed the allegation that the budget of the National Assembly was overbloated, saying that that of the Central Bank of Nigeria was higher.
The speaker told the journalists that the current National Assembly had made history by making the Executive arm of government accountable and transparent.
“We have made executive accountable and transparent. In the past four budgets that I presided over, we have saved for the country huge sums of money that could be used elsewhere for the development of the country,” Bankole added.
According to him the National Assembly has so far saved the country over N1tn through oversight functions.
By Francis Falola, Abeokuta
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