Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has admonished the leadership and members of the state Houses of Assembly not to compromise their independence to the executive arm in the course of discharging their duties.
Gbajabiamila gave the charge at the opening of a three-day capacity building programme for Kogi State House of Assembly held at the instance of National Institute of Legislative Studies and Democratic Studies (NILDS).
The Speaker, who emphasised that the three arms of government are autonomous and on the same pedestal, warned against alleged impunity being perpetrated by the governors of Edo and Bauchi States for refusing to issue fresh proclamation letters to the state Houses of Assembly in Edo and Bauchi states.
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While stressing that “anything short of this is an illegality and unconstitutional,” he noted that the onus was on the state Houses of Assembly to defend democracy.
He harped on the need for regular legislative capacity building workshop and cross-fertilisation of legislative ideas in line with international best practice.
Represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Honourable Peter Akpatason, the Speaker tasked state legislators to roll out legislations that would help in bridging infrastructural deficit, insecurity and other socioeconomic challenges at all levels.
Also speaking, Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Mathew Kolawole, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to issue an Executive Order with a view to compelling state governors to enforce the financial autonomy law already assented to during the fourth alteration of the 1999 Constitution.
In his remarks, Director General of NILDS, Professor Abubakar Suleiman, explained that the training initiated by the institute was aimed at repositioning the legislature in Nigeria to “discharge its constitutionally assigned roles of lawmaking, oversight and representation effectively.”
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