-As lawmakers demand identities of 6 Sanwo-Olu’s nominees
The Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday summoned the state’s procurement agency over reports of alleged spendings by the Offices of the Governor and the Deputy Governor.
The House took tha resolution at a sitting presided over by Speaker Mudashiru Obasa on Tuesday.
The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, had refuted online reports that his office got over N2 billion for the supply of rechargeable fans and lights as well as fridges.
Reports that Hamzat got the amount, including N30 million monthly for his wife for outreach purposes, gained attention online, leading to widespread criticism.
According to an internal memo addressed to the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, the deputy governor’s office disclosed that it got N2 million as against the N2 billion being reported.
In the memo dated November 20, 2023 and addressed to the Director General, Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, the Office of the Deputy Governor described the open letter containing the figures as “untrue, mischievous, fake and unfounded”.
Signed on behalf of the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Deputy Governor, the Director of Finance and Account, Tola Ekemode, described the procurement agency’s claim as a total misrepresentation of facts.
It, however, urged the agency to take prompt action in addressing the issue by giving the general public a true account of what was approved for the Office of the Deputy Governor.
In a bid to address the issue, Obasa, while noting that the executive arm of government had made efforts to declare the story as untrue, it was necessary for the House to look into the issue so as the establish the facts behind the story.
“So we call on the committee in charge of procurement to invite the agency and others mentioned and do a thorough job on this in order to establish facts concerning the publications,” the Speaker said.
Meanwhile, te House received a letter from Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu seeking the screening and confirmation of six new nominees for cabinet positions.
The Clerk of the House, Barr. Olalekan Onafeko, read the letter before the lawmakers quoting the governor as seeking the confirmation of a commissioner-nominee and five nominees in the position of special advisers.
However, the letter only named the commissioner-nominee as Mr. Abiodun Ogunleye, while the identities of the nominees for the position of special adviser were not mentioned making the House resolve to write back to the governor for the remaining identities.
Obasa, while agreeing with the lawmakers that names should be attached to the letter, said: “it is necessary for us to know who and who would become part of the cabinet.”
Reacting earlier, the Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Adedamola Richard Kasunmu, observed that the letter did not follow the usual procedure of revealing the identities of the nominees.
“Thus, the process of not mentioning the names seems like coming through the backdoor,” he said.
He was supported by his colleagues, Hon. Ladi Ajomale and Hon. Owolabi Ajani, who noted that the previous lists from the governor had details of the nominees and that this made the screening by the ad-hoc committee easy.
“But in this case, it is only the commissioner-nominee that had a name attached to it and this is surprising. Maybe we should also pass information to the governor that the names should be specified,” Ajomale said.
