CITING insecurity and vandalism of its equipment, Rivers State House of Assembly yesterday held its plenary at the old executive chambers of the Government House, Port Harcourt and passed 2014 Appropriation Bill of N485.524 billion into law.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state has described the passage of the budget as illegal and criminal.
The Appropriation Bill, which passed through first and second readings yesterday, was immediately signed into law by Governor Chibuike Amaechi. The capital and recurrent provisions are N247.573 billion and N237.950 billion respectively.
Before the sitting at the Government House, Speaker of the House, Otelemaba Amarchree, craved the indulgence of 22 other lawmakers present, to suspend certain aspects of the House rules, before invoking other sections that make it exigent for the House to hold plenary outside the House of Assembly building.
“We do not have access to the complex to do our legislative business. So, we are here. Before we could proceed to do any business here, may the leader of the House, in his absence, the Deputy Leader, move a motion to designate this place as our temporary chambers until our chambers is renovated and is ready for use”, Otelemaba said.
The Deputy Leader, Nname Ewor, moved the motion allowing the House to use the Government House as temporary chambers while the Deputy Whip, Mrs. Irene Inimgba, seconded the motion. Afterwards, Governor Amaechi was ushered in to present the 2014 Appropriation Bill.
The governor explained that the main thrusts of the 2014 budget would be the completion of all critical on-going capital projects that are central to the vision of his administration; improve the quality of education; improve functionality and efficiency of the healthcare system, as well as improvement in physical infrastructure; roads, transport, water supply and power.
“With due consultations with relevant stakeholders within and outside the public service, we are proposing an aggregate budget of N485.524 billion for 2014. This is N4.797 billion (0.98 per cent) lower than the 2013 budget of N490.320 billion. The focus of the budget will be on completing ongoing projects in health, education, roads, transport, power, water and agriculture and other critical infrastructure. Capital and recurrent provisions are N247.573 billion and N237.950 billion respectively. Our capital to recurrent ratio is 76:24 for the financial year 2014 as against 70:30 achieved as at September in this outgoing year”, he said.
The Guardian learnt that immediately the lawmakers passed the first and second readings of the budget, it was submitted to the governor, who then signed it into law.
The state PDP Chairman, Felix Obuah, described the presentation of the budget at the Government House as illegal and threatened that the illegality cannot be allowed to stay in Rivers State.
“The illegal budget presentation at Government House today (yesterday) cannot stand the test of time. Governor Amaechi is creating a lot of criminal records; this is the first time in the history of our dear Rivers State where we have witnessed this level of rascality and illegality. We have not seen a government force a state House of Assembly to accept a budget presentation outside the hallowed chambers of the House of Assembly. Therefore, we reject the budget presented by Governor Amaechi”, he said.
He continued: “The budget is illegal; presenting it outside the hallowed chambers is also illegal and of no effect. The budget will not see the light of the day. We want Rivers people to remain calm; we want to assure them that we will use all the legal means to make sure that the right thing is done in Rivers State”.
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