Lagos Assembly insist Ambode must appear before it

…Denies witch-hunting governor

Lagos state House of Assembly insisted Wednesday that Governor
Akinwunmi Ambode and some of his commissioners earlier invited to
explain infractions on the state budget must appear before it.

Majority Leader, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade stated this while briefing
House correspondents after an emergency parliamentary meeting by
the lawmakers Wednesday night.

He said nobody was witch-hunting the governor as being
insinuated in some quarters but that the infractions were serious
issues the House cannot over look.

Agunbiade said the House decided to correct some wrong
information and misconception being bandied around by the House
resolutions on Ambode Monday last week.

As a fall out of the massive protest Wednesday at the Lagos
State House of Assembly by concerned Lagosians against the planned
impeachment of Governor Akinwunmi by the Assembly, members went
into an emergency parliamentary meeting immediately after the
protest.

Referring to the earlier protest, Agunbiade said the House is
not saying that Ambode should not end his tenure but that because
of issues surrounding the 2019 budget he was summoned by the
House.

According to him, the major contention is that he has started
spending from the 2019 budget which has not been laid before the
House which is against constitutional provisions.

“The budget is supposed to have been laid before the
commencement of another fiscal which has always been the practice
in the state, and unless it is laid you cannot spend from it but
the governor has gone ahead to make expenditure from the
budget.

“There are also some infractions the House observed about the
2018 budget, expenditures made outside the budget, which
necessitated the invitation the House extended to him and some
commissioners to come and explain things.

“It is not witch-hunting as people believe, to make expenditure
from the budget you must have laid it before the House, for now we
don’t have the budget so you can’t spend. As legislators we must do
things properly,” he said.

Agunbiade also corrected some misconceptions which he said are
being tied to the Ambode issue that it was not true that the
lawmakers are after Ambode because he refused to fund their
campaign.

“We want Lagos to flourish but we cannot compromise the
regulations or constitutional provisions concerning
appropriation.

“If we wanted war we would not have written to him to come and
explain, what we said was that where the infractions continue we
would apply the constitutional provision which is impeachment”.

He assured that there was no crisis or problem but because
majority of the people don’t understand the workings of the
legislature they misinterpret the its actions

The Assembly had adjourned sitting till Monday next week but
suddenly summoned members for an emergency meeting Wednesday after
the massive protest by pro-Ambode supporters appealing to the
Assembly not to impeach the governor.

The Assembly had accused Ambode of alleged gross misconduct and
spending money from the 2019 budget that had not yet been laid or
approved by the House and spending outside the 2018 budget

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa had told members who
wished that Ambode should be impeached to start collecting
signatures in readiness to impeach the governor.

Earlier Wednesday, hundreds of supporters loyal to Ambode
stormed the Assembly to protest the planned impeachment.

The protesters, in their number marched to the Assembly and
caused traffic gridlock.

The protesters carried placards, saying that any move to impeach
Ambode would disrupt the coming election, adding that the governor
should be allowed to complete his tenure.

The protesters said the governor did not deserve the treatment
he was getting from the party, saying they should leave the
governor alone.

The State House of Assembly had moved to impeach Ambode over
what they called gross misconduct and spending part of the 2019
budget that had not been presented to the Assembly for
approval.

Video: NAF Jets Pound Terrorists inside
Sambisa

The Video: https://youtu.be/gP_bpAqkpjg^[1]

The Air Task Force (ATF) of Operation LAFIYA DOLE has destroyed
a Boko Haram Terrorists’ (BHTs) logistics base in Sambisa Forest,
Borno State.

The operation was executed on 28 January 2019, after series of
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions
revealed a resurgence of human and vehicular activities at the
logistics base, which had hitherto been abandoned.

Accordingly, the ATF scrambled 2 Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Alpha
Jet aircraft to attack the location.

Overhead the target area, several structures and vehicles were
seen camouflaged under the thick vegetation of the Forest, with
significant human activity observed within the area.

The attack aircraft recorded direct hits on the target area
resulting in the destruction of several structures and
neutralisation of some BHTs. Some of the terrorists who survived
the bomb strikes were seen fleeing the area. They were mopped-up in
follow-on attacks.

IBIKUNLE DARAMOLA
Air Commodore
Director of Public Relations and Information
Nigerian Air Force