The Osun State House of Assembly has affirmed that the Senate has no constitutional power to question how Governor Rauf Aregbesola spent the bailout given to the state government by the Federal Government.
The state lawmakers made the declaration in a statement made available to newsmen by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Mr. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, after the plenary of the assembly.
The lawmakers said this following a matter of urgent public importance raised by Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Mr. Kamil Oyedele, on the propriety of the Senate’s plan to probe the bailout.
Oyedele said by the provision of Section 128 of the Constitution, the state assembly was the arm of government empowered to carry out such probe, saying, the senate was only attempting to usurp the power of the state parliament.
The speaker, Mr. Najeem Salam, said the state lawmakers were not at war with the Senate but stated that the two must work in accordance with the provisions of the law.
The Speaker said, “The state government has the authority of this parliament to get the fund and if there is any issue, we are the ones empower to probe and make a recourse to the National Assembly if there is need for such.
“As I am talking, we have not received any letter from the senate relating to the issue of bailout fund as colleagues. Probably the senate has forgotten that we are colleague, only areas of jurisdiction are differ.
“It must be noted that this fund is a loan that would be paid back, not grant and there are budgetary provisions for it. As as result, the state parliament is monitoring it, but with the action of the senate, it seem we need to make the monitoring open.”
Earlier, the State Government had said the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, ICPC, did not indict it over N34.988 billion bailout funds it got last year.
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