Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday evening began moves to impeach Governor Akinwunmi Ambode over alleged gross misconduct.
The lawmakers at its plenary on Monday evening accused the governor of committing atrocities bordering on gross misconduct and spending budget that had not been laid before the House or approved by the Assembly.
Out of the 34 lawmakers who spoke at the plenary, 28 of them called for the impeachment of the governor while six others called on the governor to resign.
Also, the lawmakers, through a voice vote stood for the impeachment of the governor.
Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa said there was need for the House to give Ambode a last chance to appear before the House to explain the allegations and infractions levelled against him.
He said the Assembly has given the governor one week to appear before it to explain his own side of the story or faced impeachment.
Obasa, therefore, asked the lawmaker who still wanted the governor to be impeached to start gathering signatures, adding that there had been constitutional breach and infractions on the part of the governor.
“The Attorney General, Finance Commissioner and Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning that ought to have advised the Governor did not do so. The most important thing is that we should let the people know that a budget that was yet to be approved was being spent, which was why we could not attend to the Governor on the budget on Monday 21, January.
“We must give them a fair hearing to come and explain what happened. The point has been made that there must be something before the House before you can commence expenditure. We want to call on the governor to come within a week to explain himself along with the Governor. We can start gathering signatures for impeachment. We can exercise patience and wait till another time,” he said.
Earlier, the lawmakers had reacted to a report presented by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni as the Chairman of the Committee set up to look into the issues surrounding the 2019 budget during a parliamentary meeting of the lawmakers.
Eshinlokun disclosed that the committee met with relevant commissioners and heads of agencies, and that the committee met with the Commissioner For Budget and Economic Planning, Hon. Segun Banjo, who said that no money had been spent for the year.
He said that the Accountant General told the committee that warrant had been issued that they could spend up to 25% of the preceding budget before the approval of that of the new year, adding that the government had to make a recourse to the House if they wanted to spend up to N200 million.
“We pointed out that the Governor ought to lay the budget of the New Year before December 31st, but that so far, the budget was yet to be laid, which was on January 23, 2019. We asked them to bring out the law that allows them to spend up to 20% of the budget of the preceding year. They could not bring out such law and we said what they did was wrong.
“We discovered that people have started receiving alerts and this has a grave implication for the executive. It is our finding that for smooth running of government, there must be a strict adherent to the constitution and it must not be violated. We decided to bring the report before the lawmakers for us to take action,” he said.
Commenting, Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu said that the Committee on Budget discovered during budget appropriation review that there were some specific expenditure in the budgets that ought to have been approved by the House over which funds were expended.
Yishawu stated that these were misnomers, and that they noticed variation in the expenditure and budget approved.
“We had issues of virement and monies being spent without approval. We had cases of items that were not budgeted for being carried out, it shows the executive rewrite the budget at will. The Constitution states that the State House of Assembly must approve all expenditures,” he added.
According to him, “things are shutting down, things are being slowed down by the government,” saying that it was as if the executive was tired and that the people were complaining.
“It is as if nothing is happening in the state now. Breach of the constitution and gross misconduct are being committed here, and the punishment is clear. We should begin an impeachment process if need be, if the executive does not retrace its steps,” he said.
This was corroborated by Hon. Tunde Braimoh, who said that the manner of revelation was of serious concern, saying that they all swore to uphold the tenets of the constitution of Nigeria.
He added that Sections 120 and 121 explained the roles of each arm of government when it comes to financial expenditure.
“If we continue like this, it means we are moving on the ebb of destruction. The issue of gross misconduct should be closely looked into and necessary sanctions applied,” he said.
This was supported by Hon. Bisi Yusuf, who pointed out that the Governor is an accountant, and that he was an Acting Auditor General in 2001 and was confirmed in 2005.
“With his level of exposure, he cannot claim ignorance. He is being surrounded by intellectuals, so they ought to have advised him including the Deputy Governor and the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning. The Attorney General ought to have been removed for quoting a law that does not exist.
“All those, who are given the Governor bad advice should be removed. In the whole of Lagos, things have shut down. This is an offence that is not pardonable. I want to say this is an impeachable offence for the Governor and the commissioners,” he said.
