Kwara House of Assembly not at loggerheads with executive

The Kwara State House of Assembly has said that it is not at loggerheads with the executive.

The House said that its members unanimously rejected an executive bill titled “Kwara State Public Infrastructure Maintenance Support Levy” at first reading stage to avoid unnecessary burden on people of the state.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin at the weekend, the Chairman House Committee on Information, Social Development, Youth Sports and Culture, Saheed Popoola, said that the state was not ripe for such levy at this time.

The lawmaker explained that though the Bill had its merits, the current economic hardship in the country and in the state in particular, as well as the need to avoid double taxation informed the decision of the House to throw out the Bill.

Answering questions on the dissolution of elected Local Government Council, he further disclosed that the House endorsed the dissolution and the inauguration of Transition Implementation Committee (TIC) by the state Governor Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed based on the state Local Government Law as amended, passed by the House which he said, empowers the governor to dissolve councils and appoint a caretaker committee to administer the affairs of the councils in the state.

He said reasons adduced by the governor for the dissolution of the affected councils were in accordance with section 18 (5) of the state Local Government Law as amended.

The chairman of the House Committee on Information who said the legislature which he said was the conscience of the people, was not a rubber stamp, saying that all the actions of the first arm government in the state were in accordance with the provisions of the laws, stressing that it would sustain its check and balance role as enshrined in the nation’s constitution to further enhance good governance in the state.