Niger Assembly begins probe of Gov Bello

The Niger State House of Assembly has commenced a discrete investigation into the management of the finance of the state, since Governor Abubakar Sani Bello assumed office in May 2015.

In commencing the probe, it summoned both the Commissioner for Finance and his Budget and Planning counterpart to explain at plenary how finances that accrued to the state from October last year to date were spent.

The legislators issued the summons in a resolution after passing 10 motions within 50 minutes all geared towards looking at the books of accounts of the state.

The House which resumed after Sallah break debated the address by the Speaker, Alhaji Ahmed Marafa, in which he x-rayed developments in the state especially the strike by civil servants.

All those that contributed to the debate on the speakers address said the Governor had been operating like a military man and was violating the provisions of the constitution by his actions.

They argued that all the motions and bills passed by the House had been ignored by the Governor an indication that “he does not want to work with us”

Addressing a press conference after plenary on Wednesday the Chairman of the House Committee on Information Alhaji Shuaibu Liman said the motions passed arose from the welcome speech of the Speaker Ahmed Marafa ‘concerning issues of public interest’.

He said the Governor had kept the Assembly in ‘the dark’ on how public funds were being utilised while contracts were awarded outside budgetary provisions, adding that the Commissioner of Finance was expected to appear on the 19th of July to give detailed explanation on how much money accrued from statutory allocations and how it was spent.

His counterpart in the Budget and Planning Ministry, he said would appear on July 20, 2016, to give account of capital receipts and other monies that accrued to the state outside statutory allocations.