Lagos Assembly summons Ambode over alleged unapproved expenditure

The Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday issued a one-week notice to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to appear before it to explain why he was allegedly spending unapproved funds.

During plenary, the lawmakers accused the governor of misconduct, and therefore, summoned him to clear himself of the charge. Failure which they would begin collection of signatures for his impeachment.

The speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, while harping on need to give the number one citizen a fair hearing, said: “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, January 21.

“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 before we start gathering signatures for impeachment.”

The chairman of the committee set up to look into matters surrounding the 2019 budget, Wasiu Ehinlikunb-Sanni, in their report, disclosed that the state was already spending funds in contravention of the law.

He said when the committee met with the Accountant General, it was informed that a warrant had been issued for spending of 25 per cent of the preceding budget before its approval.

His words: “We asked them to bring out the law that allows them to spend up to 20 per cent 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 strict adherence to the constitution. We decided to bring the report before the lawmakers for us to take action.”