The All Progressives Congress (APC), on Thursday, faulted Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s 2024 budget presentation to four out of the 31 members of the state House of Assembly as unconstitutional.
Information Nigeria reports that on Wednesday presented the N800 billion budget to the four lawmakers believed to be loyal to him at the Government House in Port Harcourt, a few minutes after the demolition of the House of Assembly Complex.
Tony Okocha, the State APC Caretaker Committee Chairman, said in a statement in Port Harcourt that Section 120(2) of the Constitution clearly stated that no money shall be spent except it was appropriated by the state House of Assembly.
“The presentation of a bill to four suspended members of the House of Assembly does not fulfil the requirements of the constitution for all the reasons stated,” he said.
Okocha cautioned that expenditure made by the state government on the outcome of such a presentation was clearly an infringement on the constitution and as such sufficient grounds to commence impeachment.
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He added that the four members, led by the court backed Speaker, Edison Ehie, who sat and passed the budget presented to them by the Governor, “were dwelling on illegality.”
Section 92(2)C, he noted, prescribed that a Speaker can be removed by a two-thirds majority of the House of Assembly.
According to him, there was no evidence to show that Martins Amaewhule, the Speaker of the House, had been removed from office.
“Amaewhule remains the speaker of the House of Assembly, the lawmakers passed a vote of confidence on him,’’ he said.
The Chairman furthered that the move by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to end the strained relationship between Fubara and ex-Governor Nyesom Wike has failed.
“I wasn’t part of it, but whatever that was it, has broken down, and it has been broken irreconcilably.”
