Ondo Assembly Pass 2018 Appropriation Bill Into Law

TBy Niyi Olutunde, Akure

The Ondo State House of Assembly on Thursday passed the 2018 Appropriation amendment Act into law.

According to the Speaker of the House, Rt Hon Bamidele Oleyelogun said the appropriation amendment became necessary to passed into law in order to allow the state government to executive some projects in the state and also implement new policies which are beneficial to the people of the state.

The amendment was however passed into law by nine members of the state House of Assembly.

It would be recalled that the House of Assembly has divided into two since last week Friday over the purported impeachment of the Speaker, Bamidele Oleyelogun and his Deputy Ogundeji Iroju respectively for allegations bothering on gross misconduct by 18 members, while the other camp has elected Hon. Olamide George as their Speaker.

But Oleyelogun said the house took the decision after considering the recommendations of the house committee on Finance and Appropriation.

According to him, Oleyelogun said the last tranche of the Paris club refund released to the state would be captured in the amendment for the patient of salary arrears of workers in the state.

The embattled Speaker maintained that the House resolved that approval be given to the pooling of the sum of N10,066,473,738,07 billion from capital expenditure component of the 2018 budget and the reallocation of the funds without any alteration to the budget size.

Also, he said the House approved the pooling of N4.263,520,783,18billion from recurrent expenditure component of the 2018 budget and the re-allocation of the funds without any alteration to the budget size.

Oleyelogun said, “That the approval be given to the pooling of the sum of N4,263,520,783.18 billion from recurrent expenditure component of the 2018 Budget and the re-allocation of the funds without any alteration to the Budget size.

“That approval be given to the pooling of the sum of N10,066,473,738.07 billion  from capital expenditure component of the 2018 budget and the re-allocation of the funds without any alteration to the Budget size.

“That the state government should ensure that the provision of the re-ordered budget funds are conscientiously applied to the needs stated there in so that the good intention behind the dispensation would be fully attained.”

At the plenary sitting, the House also dissolved all the standing committees of the House and appointed three new principal officers.

The new principal officers are Hon. Suleiman Maito (Majority Leader), Abayomi Akinruntan (Deputy Majority Leader) and Kazeem Suleiman (Parliamentary Secretary).