Edo govt faults Reps’ resolution on dissolved LGs

Edo govt faults Reps’ resolution on dissolved LGs

| Print | E-mail

Written by Uchechukwu Olisah, Benin City Friday, 05 November 2010

The Edo State government has faulted the resolution of the House of Representatives calling for  the stoppage of statutory allocations to local government councils over the state government’s dissolution of the councils, saying the lawmakers are jobless, otherwise they should be dealing with more important matters.
Besides, the government took a swipe at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state for its opposition to the dissolution, pointing out that Section 10 (1) of the Edo State Local Government Law (Amended) 2000, which empowered Governor Adams Oshiomhole to dissolve the councils, was enacted during a PDP administration in the state.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters, Mr. Charles Idahosa, who spoke on behalf of the state government on Thursday in Benin City, added that if the lawmakers were not ignorant of the law they should have known that the Supreme Court had held in a case between the Lagos State government and the Federal Government that allocations to councils could not be stopped by anybody, including the President of Nigeria.
“We are all aware that these people are just there jobless, they have nothing doing. In fact, I am one of those that have been saying that the National Assembly should be a part-time thing. There are pressing issues in Nigeria that they are supposed to talk about, they are talking about local government that is purely an affair of the state. The local government can only function with laws made by the state House of Assembly, how the House of Representatives is concerned, nobody knows,” he said.