Lalong, LG C’ttee, didn’t give me  money or gift– Plateau Speaker

The Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon Peter Azi has denied the rumour making the rounds in the Tin City that Governor Simon Lalong and the Management Committee Chairmen in the 17 Local Government Council had bribed him with huge sums of money in other to secure extension of the tenure of the local government committees.

Azi said that since he assumed office as the Speaker of the Plateau Assembly, governor Lalong had never given him money on personal grounds neither has he received any money from the Management Committee Chairmen for the extension of their tenure in office.

He stated this while exclusively answering questions from our correspondent on the competency and credibility issues that is rocking the Plateau Assembly as regards the extension of the LG C’ttee and the recent approval for governor Lalong to access N14 billion loan.

The Speaker was quoted as saying that he first learnt about the loan when he was in Lagos on a conference and quickly called the Accountant General (AG) and the governor for confirmation.

His words, “I learnt about the loan in Lagos and whan I called the AG, he said that it was true and that he was preparing to send the relevant document to the State House of Assemble for approval. When I returned from my trip, I met with the governor together with all the members of the House and the Governor explained to us that there was a window to access loan from the Federal Government which will be closing in less than a week and that if the state government did not get approval form the State Assembly in matter of days, it would lose the opportunity to access the loan”, he said.

He said that Lalong explained that the loan would be used to temporarily solve the financial needs of the state, that of the state Civil Servants’ salaries and the pensioners.

“On the issue of the Management Committee Chairmen, the Governor explained to us that people come to him at the end of every two months to tell him that they were interested in replacing one of the local government chairmen, so by extending their tenure for six months, instead of the usual two months, no one will come to him seeking for such favour until the expiration of six months”, he explained.

“With my age and experience, I don’t think I will lead the people of Plateau astray; I am here to serve my people and not for personal gains”, he said.

Meanwhile some section of the Assembly Members from the opposition People Democratic Party (PDP), are not comfortable with the recent tenure elongation of the Management Committee Chairmen and the 14 billion naira loan recently approved.

However, while expressing their
opinions on the floor of the House, some members drew the attention of the House to the fact that the federal government already owes the state N15 Billion Naira”. So, the wisdom of collecting N14 billion extra loan from the same federal government was not right.”

Furthermore, the members had urged the Speaker to set a Committee to look into the details of the loan in order to know what the N14 billion the administration is trying access would be used for.