Ondo Assembly begins probe of LGAs’ accounts

• Constituents move to recall Ondo Rep over alleged abdication of legislative duties
• Say 30 lawyers to begin process

The Ondo State House of Assembly has begun the auditing of the financial transactions of the 18 local councils of the state. Speaker of the Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, who spoke during the commencement of the exercise, yesterday, said that auditing is the constitutional function of the legislative arm.

Oladiji said that the Assembly was an entire representation of the people of the state; hence it must ensure checks and balances for accountability at the grassroots.

He described it as worrisome and disturbing when local councils in the state refused to oblige to show their financial records as ordered by the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

“It is a sad development when many heads of administration are reluctant to turn up for their records. It’s not their money, but public money. That is why we asked you to come for this exercise.

“Don’t see it as something else because some may want to blackmail us. We are not here to do what it’s not our right, but to do the right thing and for posterity to judge us.

“For eight months, are you saying we should not check your records? Cooperate with us or else, we will use the sledgehammer as a legislative arm of the government,” he said.

Earlier, Japheth Oluwatoyin, Chairman, House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, said that the exercise was a major function of the legislative arm being entrenched in the Constitution. Oluwatoyin added that the Assembly has the power to appropriate and supervise the funds of the councils.

MEANWHILE, the people of Ondo East/Ondo West Federal Constituency of Ondo State have commenced the process of recalling the lawmaker representing them at the National Assembly, Abiola Makinde, over alleged abdication of legislative duties.

According to the constituents, under the auspices of the Ekimogun Roundtable, Makinde had purportedly abandoned its legislative duties for several months and relocated abroad for unknown reasons.

The group, in a statement by its Acting Secretary, Christiana Ayodele, yesterday, alleged that the National Assembly office of the lawmaker had been under lock and key while the constituency had been without any representation in the lower chamber of the National Assembly.

Ayodele said that over 30 legal practitioners had indicated interest in offering free legal services to challenge the action of the lawmaker. The statement further stated that the group had written to the National Assembly requesting the plenary attendance record of Makinde to ascertain his compliance with the relevant sections of the Nigerian Constitution and the House of Representatives Standing Rules on plenary attendance.

However, all efforts to reach the embattled federal lawmaker on the phone were not successful, as he did not pick up the calls put across to him, and the text message sent to him was not replied to as of the time of filing this report.