10th October, 2014
Eromosele Ebhomele
Chairmen and management staff of 16 out of the 57 local councils in Lagos, western Nigeria, may face the wrath of the Lagos State House of Assembly over their refusal to honour an invitation to explain issues relating to their capital project audited report, P.M. NEWS has learnt.
Six of the affected councils were said to have stayed away from the House in spite of an invitation to appear and explain grey areas in their capital expenditure for 2012 as found in the Auditor-General’s report which is being reviewed by the House.
The other 10 were said to have appeared before the House Committee on Public Account for Local Government, which is saddled with the oversight function, but were asked to return with some documents that would assist in their explanations to the committee.
However, over two months after, these council chairmen and their management staff have refused to appear, sources within the committee have said.
According to the list obtained by some House of Assembly correspondents, the eight councils that outrightly refused to honour the House invitation include Mushin, Badagry West, Isolo, Lagos Island East, Olorunda and Badagry Central councils.
Those that refused to return to the committee with the required documents were listed as Apapa, Ibeju-Lekki, Oto-Awori, Epe, Lekki, Ikosi-Isheri, Oriade, Ikosi-Ejinrin, Amuwo-Odofin, and Agege
The Assembly is broken into committees which take up oversight functions on behalf of the entire House and report to the House at a given time. Each committee, most times, take decisions on behalf of the House.
P.M.NEWS learnt that the committee was already putting its report together to present to the Committee of the Whole during a plenary of the House.
The tenure of the council chairmen will expire this October and their refusal to appear, P.M.NEWS learnt, could result in crisis for those to take over from them.
“In order to make some of them scapegoats, the House may be forced to pass sanctions on them before their tenure expires,” a lawmaker told P.M.NEWS.
When contacted, the chairman of the House Committee on Public Account for Local Governments, Dayo Fafunmi, confirmed that the affected councils had been evasive.
He explained that letters from the Office of the Clerk of the House were sent to them but lamented that while some of them refused to honour the invitation, others came and refused to bring documents demanded by the committee.
He, however, did not confirm or deny that the affected councils would be sanctioned by the House. He refused to state what type of sanctions could be meted out to the erring councils and their officials.
“Whatever the House would do to resolve their issues would be collectively decided upon, but I can tell you that issues arising from the erring councils would be debated by the House which has supervisory roles over them, in the interest of the party and Lagosians at large,” Fafunmi said.