Kogi Assembly okays 11 alterations to Constitution
... As NUT petition forces commitment of LG autonomy to House Committee

Kogi State House of Assembly on Wednesday 31st January, 2018 in plenary session commenced the alteration of the 1999 Constitution as amended by the National Assembly and sent to the State Houses of Assembly for their inputs as required by law.

The Assembly Members who adopted a voice vote for the exercise passed 11 bills out of the 15 alterations sent to them for consideration with the State Assemblies Autonomy and Not Too Young To Run bills leading order bills that were passed.

In passing the bills, the alteration bills were deliberated upon and taken clause by clause for members to contribute to the passage of the all importance laws.

The alteration of section 121 “3” (a&b) which is the item number 2 on the alteration list now empower State Assemblies to get their funding directly from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the state.

The Assembly referred items 3 and 4 which deal with the alteration of section 162 (1 - 10) and 7(a&b), 318 part 1 of the fifth schedule to abrogate State Joint Local Government Account and empower each Local Government Council to maintain its special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account wherein all allocations for the Local Government Councils shall directly be paid from the Federation Account and from the Government of the State to the House Standing Committee on Local Government Affairs to conduct a public hearing due to the petition earlier submitted to the House of Assembly by one of the major stakeholders; Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) who at the long run will benefit from the alteration.

In a motion moved by the Majority Leader, Hon. Abdullahi Bello and seconded by the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. (Barr.) Oluwatoyin Lawal for the sections to be committed to the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to conduct a public hearing in order to give room for all stakeholders in the state to make inputs to the all important bills before its becomes law.

Before ruling on the motion which was considered very critical to the development of the grassroots in the state, the Speaker; Rt. Hon. Matthew Kolawole said it is imperative to give all the stakeholders the opportunity to contribute to the bill, noting that as true representatives of the people, they don’t have any option than to do what would make the people happy as regards  Local Government Autonomy.

He urged the public to
exercise patience as the sixth assembly will do justice to the bill.

In another related development the House also passed the Annual Budget Estimates of the 21 Local Government Areas in Kogi State of Seventy four billion, three hundred and four million, three hundred and two thousand, three hundred and eighty naira only (N74, 304, 302, 380) for the year ending 31st December, 2018 into law, with N43, 169, 713, 640, as Recurrent Expenditure and N31, 134, 588, 740 as Capital Expenditure.

The report of the House Joint Committee on Establishment, Training and Pension Matters and Judiciary, Justice and Legal Matters on A Law to make Provisions for a Contributory Pension Scheme for Employees in the Service of Kogi State and other matters connected therewith, 2018 were slated for another legislative day for deliberation.

The House is due to reconvene Tuesday 27th February, 2018.

Wey the list of all the bill them pass,nah just like 3-4 bill I see for there