The member representing Igalamela/Odolu state constituency in the Kogi State House of Assembly and Chairman, Public Accounts Committee, Elder Friday Sani Makama has declared that the House at no point passed confidence vote on Governor Yahaya Bello.
In an interview with DAILY POST in Abuja, he described the Kogi workers’ verification as satanic and woeful.
He stated that “Bello is a tyrant who has seized the functions of the state Assembly in order to perpetuate his evil agenda through mischief makers, who he has planted in government.
Excerpts:
Kogi State House of Assembly was reported to have passed a vote of confidence on governor Yahaya Bello. Why did you decide to distance yourself despite being seen as a strong supporter of his administration during the formation?
Well, there is nobody in the Kogi State House of Assembly who is against my position when I distanced myself from the purported vote of confidence passed on the executive governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
There is no official statement from Kogi state House of Assembly, there is no official statement from the Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, there is no official statement from majority leader who was quoted to be behind the mischief.
You would have also discovered that there are members of the state Assembly who have equally distanced themselves from the purported vote of confidence on governor Bello. Then, the question is who must have passed this vote of confidence? Could it be an institution like Kogi State House of Assembly? It is an assignment for journalists to find out. As for the Kogi State House of Assembly, we cannot pass vote of confidence on the governor in the face of hunger and starvation.
The majority leader told me that he was misquoted or quoted out of context when I called him to crosscheck the story. He said he commended the governor over the renovation of Kogi State House of Assembly chambers and I told him it was a commendation coming at a wrong time. How will you commend a person who built a skyscraper at a time when he has caused death and disease to our people? What my constituents expected from us is to react and ensure that people are paid their salaries? I said whatever commendation you have was ill-timed and whoever was misquoting you or getting you out of context may seem not to be wrong.
I also told him to issue an official statement to this effect and up till this moment, I do not know reasons he has not issued a statement discountenancing that. This means there are issues to question. These issues are all important matters and we are all elected by our constituents especially the grass root people who do not have access to Lokoja, the state capital. Matters like these, are all important that the House needs to issue an official statement and as progressive and integrity group which I represent, there is nothing like vote of confidence.
I know also that there are mediocre in Kogi State playing the music of the executive arm. I think this mischief was organized by them and I urge Kogites to discountenance that purported vote of confidence.
As long as Igalamela/Odolu state constituency is yet to be abrogated, I remain the voice of my constituents and I have not given my mandate to anyone to pass a vote of confidence on governor Yahaya Bello as claimed on pages of national dailies.
Is the State Assembly not in the know of issues surrounding Bello’s staff screening that has lingered for over a year without paying workers’ salaries?
It is true that public accounts committee has been under my watch even before this current administration and I am the only House of Assembly member who has held the Committee concurrently in the last two administrations. Public Accounts committee is seemed to be the juicy committee in the state Assembly. So it is a committee that nobody has held for two times while I am holding it for the third time. I wouldn’t claim it is because of my competence, but the Assembly knows that I am a very thorough person and strong character and that is why the House has allowed me to hold that committee.
As Chairman of Public Accounts committee before the current administration, it is in this current administration that this mess started. Let me tell you here that I have evidence of letters written to the Executive arm in my capacity seeking them to furnish the committee on which of the state government account the bailout funds was deposited in the first place and the executive arm refused me to have information about the bailout funds.
I sought to know how much, which account and how do they intend to dispense the bailout funds, but because of tyrannical system of government which Bello operates in the state, an appointee of the state government will write to the state Assembly that we don’t have powers to summon them or demand to have any information.
It is evident by the last invitation of Auditor-General of the state who served as Chairman of satanic screening committee. The House had a resolution inviting him and he wrote to the state Assembly that any question regarding to screening or retrenchment should be referred to Yahaya Bello. All these letters are the things I can produce to Journalists in Nigeria. With this system of government what do we do?
On the activities of the executive governor who do not want Public Accounts Committee to work as enshrined in the constitution, I have reported to the House severally. One of my reports was what led to the suspension of local government administrators. The appointed Sole Administrators said that nobody has powers to ask them to submit audited reports of their council areas.
By the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, from Section 184-189, you will see the powers of Public Accounts Committee of legislative houses to request for up to date local government audited reports. This we did and we were insulted by local government administrators and on the day I reported back to the House of Assembly, it was pathetic.
So, we looked at the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria vis-à-vis the local government law that was passed by the Kogi State House of Assembly, particularly in section 124 and 128 where the House of Assembly is empowered to suspend a council chairman and his vice for purposes of investigation on allegations of fraud.
We are talking about those not legitimately elected, but appointed by the executive which has no basis in law. Bello calls them chief administrators. What was passed in local government laws, 2003, 2006, 2010 and 2011 amended last in 2013 only recognized a transition committee of 5 men and the tenure of 5 men committee was well spelt out. In current situation, the governor went outside the confine of laws and appointed the so-called chairmen and named them as administrators without regard to local government laws in democratic governance.
For the governor to appoint transition committees, the laws says such nominee shall be referred to the state Assembly for confirmation and in this case, none of these processes was observed. The illegitimate child gave birth to illegitimacy in the state and I reported to the state Assembly and behold they were unanimous in condemnation which led to the suspension of those 5 Chairmen from office. Those affected were Igalamela/Odolu,Okehi, Yagba west, Ogori Magogo and one other.
In view of utter disregard to the State House of Assembly by governor Yahaya Bello in matters affecting welfare of workers in the State, do you think the Assembly as an institution is still in charge?
The Assembly is not in charge. This is coming not because members have taken money from the state governor, but because they are being intimidated. Very few members of Kogi State House of Assembly are interested in taking money from the executive to betray the people, very few of us. Majority of members of state House of Assembly are men of integrity and the reality is that they have been coerced and intimidated by the executive and they have allowed themselves to be intimidated.
There have been threat to lives, violence against some of us and being driven out of the state. We have been denied our remuneration, where 2016 year ended without payment of our constituency allowances. The Executive’s strategy was to intimidate us so that we can soft pedal and agree to their terms. I insisted that the constituency allowance will be paid before 2017 budget can be presented. It began as a one man crusade and at the end of the day, all the members have to key into it because it concerns the interest of all of us. So, government was compelled to pay our allowances before the budget was presented as against the December period which we were supposed to be paid and called for constituency briefing as allowed by law.
Kogi state government has been able to hold the state Assembly not to discharge its responsibilities so that we can all be seen as bunch of failures. The strategy is for all of us to sink together at the end of the day. I repeat, the current Assembly is under siege.
Has the State Assembly ever officially passed the information to the National Assembly for their intervention?
As for the National Assembly, I do not have the mandate to speak on their behalf, but Senator Dino Melaye representing Kogi West and the likes of Honourable Buba Jibril and others particularly APC as a party, you are aware that there was a press conference recently where they addressed non-payment of Kogi workers’ salaries by this administration.
They openly alledged that the government has embezzled over N280 billion within one year and I also expect that the National Assembly ought to have gone beyond that to ensure that the State Assembly is not under siege. We have state Assembly that is under seige and we have National Assembly who are supposed to be our Senior colleague watching. Is it that they have been bought over or is there anything that is making the National Assembly not to stamp its authority in the face of this quagmire? Everybody is under mental slavery in Kogi State.
The National Assembly is fully aware of what is happening in Kogi state, if not, what Senator Dino Melaye did would not have come.
A motion was moved by me and a resolution was passed that the screening must stop because of deaths and diseases it has caused to our people, yet the governor of the state refused to honour the position of the House. I do not know if the House will be bold enough to sign the resolution so that we can send it to the National Assembly for their actions too.
Don’t you think the executive has breached some sections of laws that can lead to impeaching him from office in the face of this rascality, particularly non payment of workers’ salaries which are fundamental to the well being of the state?
I don’t think we have state Assembly that is bold to impeach the governor right now because I have told you the members cannot even take strong position on some issues. As I speak with you, some of us have been given notice to quit government quarters. The police have visited me many times asking me to quit government quarters; I thank God that the current special adviser to the governor on Security matters is an enlightened person compared to the former security adviser to the governor who is a hired killer. I called him because he was the former secretary to the Kangaroo panel that led to the killing of late Ken Saro Wiwa and such a man cannot be described as anything than a hired killer. He was the special adviser on security to the governor before now and during his tenure he brought men in mask to remove me from my official residence because they felt I opposed the government of the day on certain issues.
But when the current one met me one on one I told him to cross check history to see support I gave to this government at the beginning and to see reason in taking action against me. Is it because I advised government to pay workers’ salaries that his mischief makers urged that I should be assassinated? Was it because of that that all agents of government were being used against me? Because he is an enlightened person, he was able to reason and when he eventually checked, he discovered the role I played in stabilizing this current government and I do not deserve what they were planning against me.
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