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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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lagos Assembly orders probe of LG�s stalled sittingsSULAYMON ABDULKAREEMTHE Lagos State House of Assembly has mandated its Joint Committee on Local Govern-ment Administration, Judiciary, Ethics and Public Petitions to investigate why the legislative arm of Orile-Ikeja Local Government Area has not sat in the last one-month. The committee, which is to report back to the House within one week is also to ascertain the whereabouts of the council�s mace which has also been reported missing in the last one month. The mandate followed petitions submitted to the House by the Vice-Chairman of the Orile-Ikeja council, Mr. Wale Odunlami and four other councillors over the missing mace among other problems in the council. The DAILY TIMES gathered that for about a month, the councillors had not sat because the council chairman, Mr. Wahab Owokoniran, reportedly drafted a team of policemen to prevent them from doing so. The House noted that the measure was put in place with a view of making sure that the legislative arm of the council was not allowed to perform its constitutional role. Debating a motion, spon-sored by a member of the House, Mr. Bayo Odulana (Ikeja III) and seconded by Prince Niyi Oyemade (Ikeja I), the House maintained that the committee must thoroughly look into the petitions and report back to the House in the next one week. Odunlami declared that the council chairman had been reckless with the way he had been handling the council affairs, saying that preventing the legislative arm of the council from sitting was tantamount to threatening the symbol of democracy. He alleged that the chairman had drafted some policemen to block the council�s legislative chamber, adding that Owoko-niran single-handedly made a bye-law on revenue collection and signed it into law without the consent of the legislative arm. Another member of the House, Olaitan Mustapha, stated that or the House to know that the councillors were not sitting they needed to investigate. One of the petitions signed by the leader of the council, Mustapha Adesina, Deputy leader, Mufutau Odekilekun, Majority Leader, Idowu Ayinde and Chief Whip, Rasheed Badmus, titled Prevention of legislative sitting by the executive chairman,� pointed out that the undersigned councillors had come to notice the of and design by the chairman in connivance with the Head of Personnel Management (HPM) and council clerk to prevent the council from having our plenary sessions as stipulated by the constitution.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004 |
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