By Olatunde Odimayo.
The lingering crisis rocking the Kogi State Haij Commission reared its ugly head in the hallow chambers of the State House of Assembly today as they failed to defend the budget proposal presented by the commission.
The acting executive chairman of the commission, Alhaji Isah Abdullahi, who was vividly enraged as he stepped out of the screening venue, noted that the crisis between the present and the former executives of the commission has rendered the budget ineffective.
According to the acting chairman, the budget was proposed by the former executive of the commission while all efforts of the new excutives to resolve some grey areas failed leading to the incapacitation of the present executive in information.
“The commission generally is undergoing restructuring. We met it and we are constrained with information. The past executive never released any information to us. “
“There is a crisis in the commission and we have not been able to put our house in order before coming to defend the proposed budget. Several effort to get this information failed before this date and we couldn’t give any excuse why we won’t appear today”, Alhaji Abdullahi lamented.
In the same vein, the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) have been directed to go back and rework on their proposed budget. Chairman of SIEC, Andrew Dare said they need a realistic budget to perform effectively in 2017.
In another development, the office of the Secretary to the Kogi State Government (SSG) is to be renovated with the sum of one hundred and twenty million naira (N120,000,000.00).
This is different from the N250,000,000.00 allocated for the purpose of building an official residence for the SSG in the 2017 draft budget.
Fielding questions from the house committee on government house service, the Secretary to the Kogi State Government, Dr. Folashade Ayoade intimated Honourable members that from her findings in Nigeria, Kogi state is the only state that does not have an official residence assigned to the SSG.
According to her, she is presently residing in an apartment meant for the chief security officer of the state which she said is not befitting of the SSG status.
