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By Sunday Joseph.
There was little drama yesterday Tuesday, 27th November, 2018 as members of the Kogi State House of Assembly boycott plenary session due to non payment of their allowances.
The House had adjourned their plenary session two weeks ago, to resume yesterday, but the scheduled session could not hold as many members were seen saying, no money no sitting.
As early as 10am, some of members were on ground to attend the session but first went into the executive session where issues are first discussed before raising it on the floor of the house, but surprisingly the executive session lasted more than necessary as many of the members were seen leaving the complex around after 1pm which signified that there would not be sitting due to their standing order which stipulated that the house must be convened on or before 1pm after which they cannot sit again until 3pm of the same day.
However, investigation revealed that the non sitting of the members yesterday was in protest of the non payment of their statutory allowances which is long overdue.
According to one of the members who don’t want his name in print confirmed that the house cannot continue to sit without getting their allowances which the governor promised but refused to fulfill his promises.
The source further confirmed that the state government only paid seventy five (75%) of their constituency allowance in 2017 while they have not received one kobo for the 2018.
He stressed that the governor gave them assurances before they received the last Paris club refund but could not honor his promises when the money came.
The source confirmed that despite the plead of the speaker for the members to wait for yesterday plenary session, majority of the members vehemently refused as they jetted out of the assembly complex.
Most of them said that is how the speaker has been pleading with them since January and now 11th months is coming to an end, nothing happened.
They promised not to sit until the constituency allowance is paid in full, as that is only avenue they can use to impact their constituency positively via their constituency projects.
The Speaker and some of the core loyalists of the governor who were still seen in the office till around 5pm yesterday evening but could not sit due to lack of quorum
It would be recalled that same situation played out with the rumored resignation and defection of the Deputy Governor, Elder Simon Achuba from the ruling APC to the main opposition party, PDP due to nonpayment of his salary and allowances for upward of 10months.
Effort of our reporter to get the reaction of the speaker through his Chief Press Secretary, Femi Olugbemi proved abortive as all his phone numbers were not connecting as at the time of filing this report.
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