Rivers Rerun: Fayose Raises Alarm Wike Is To Be Placed On House Arrest Thursday Midnight

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News, Politics Tuesday, December 6th, 2016

Presents N93.4bn 2017 budget to Ekiti Assembly; declares self as House Speaker

By Ayodele Afolabi

ADO EKITI, EKITI, NIGERIA (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Ekiti State Governor Mr. Ayodele Fayose on Tuesday raised the alarm that his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike would be placed on House Arrest by Thursday midnight, alleging that the move is parts of the plot by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to win the State rerun poll, this Saturday at all cost.

Fayose raised the alarm when he presented N93.456 billion 2017 budget to the State’s Assembly.

Governor Fayose who lamented the poor state of the Nigerian economy and the attendance poverty, also announced that the budget would accommodate some new projects, assuring that there would be “massive renovation of primary schools in the state.”

He said: “The policy thrusts of the 2017 budget include but not limited to completion of the ongoing capital projects that are central to the six cardinal programmes of the government and to improve the level of internally-generated revenue and monitor same for the purpose of blocking all leakages of government revenue.”

He said the government was targetting funds from federal allocation, internally-generated revenue (and from tertiary institutions in the state too), value-added tax, grants, draw-down, loans and other sources to fund the budget.

Fayose described the 2017 budget in which N38billion was earmarked for capital projects, as “a landmark for me as my tenure terminates in October 2018, next year is the last full year that I have to consolidate on the achievements of the past two years.”

The presentation was not devoid of the Fayose drama as he announced to the assembly members and the audience that “we are in a serious war times, that is why I am wearing this military camouflage.”

He also told the assembly members that he was “the Speaker of the House of Assembly,” saying Speaker Kola Oluwawole was only representing him in the seat and therefore “cannot do wrong.”

He said: “I am the Speaker of Ekiti Assembly. Pastor Oluwawole is representing me on that seat. When there are issues, he is representing me. Bring the issue to the government house for resolution. Therefore, Oluwawole cannot be wrong because he is my voice here. He is the acting Speaker while I am the Speaker of the House of Assembly.”

On whether his announcement that he was the Speaker would not endorse the contention that the House was a “rubber stamp”, he said he had no explanation to make for that, saying “I don’t have anything to say about that, whether it is sweet to hear or not, because it is my people that are here. It is one family and the honourable members in Ekiti know I am the Speaker. I have no apologies. Anybody sitting on that seat is representing me. I’m their leader and we are not into a contest of who is the leader or not. That is a phrase to say that we are in harmony, whatever we want to do, we discuss it before bringing it to the floor of the house.”

In his address, the Speaker of the Assembly, Pastor Kola Oluwawole, described the 2017 budget as one that would address the six cardinal programmes of Governor Fayose for the state.

Oluwawole held that “Ekiti people will continue to reap maximally the dividends of democracy under the leadership of Dr. Peter Ayodele Fayose,” and noted that “the budget has been structured within the expected revenue profile of the state.”

While assuring that the house would “swing into action on the budget with a view to giving it expeditious consideration and passage into appropriation law,” he explained that the budget was “in line with the sound logic of cutting your coat according to your cloth.”