Zamfara factional assembly dissolves house committees, alleges financial misappropriation
The Zamfara State Factional House of Assembly on Wednesday announced the dissolution of all principal officers, standing committees, and appointed two sensitive committees to give the institution a better focus.
This was disclosed by the factional speaker, Bashar Gummi, shortly after the House Plenary, which was held in Gusau, the state capital.
He said two standing committees, that of Ethics and Privileges, as well as Works and Infrastructure, have been reconstituted to be chaired by Hon. Masama and Hon. Bashir Sarkin Zango, respectively.
The House also resolved to file all financial misappropriation reports against the dissolved House Principal Officers to the EFCC and ICPC to recover all allegedly diverted public funds.
During the sitting and under matters of urgent public importance, the lawmakers condemned the lopsided appointment of Permanent Secretaries by the Dauda Lawal-led administration.
In the motion raised by Ibrahim Tukur, member representing Bakura local government constituency, he drew the attention of the members to how some local government areas were completely edged out in the appointment of Permanent Secretaries, when some favoured local government areas had more than nine, citing Tsafe, Maradun, and Birnin Magaji local government areas as having none.
He said, “The action is a violation of the 1999 constitution as amended and must be reviewed in the principle of fairness and justice to all citizens of the state.
The House immediately directed the state governor, Lawal, to reverse the appointments and include the appointment of Permanent Secretaries fairly from all the local government areas of the state.
Similarly, the factional legislative arm frowned at the slow pace of the multi-billion-naira Gusau-Dansadau road project, where they alleged that a huge sum of money had been given to the contractors since last year, but work was yet to cover even five kilometres.
The members then directed the state Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure to appear before the House to explain the problem, pointing out that “all public and taxpayers’ money must be judiciously spent on the purposes meant.”
The House also urged Lawal to direct the reopening of at least two boarding schools shut down due to insecurity in each of the three Senatorial Districts, as demanded by parents to allow for better studies.
The legislature accused the state government of refusing to reopen the schools to avoid the school feeding programme, which had helped underprivileged children and retained students in schools.
It would be recalled that a parallel State House of Assembly emerged last Wednesday, headed by Gummi, which has been raising sensitive issues of public concern against both the executive and the Hon. Moriki-led factional assembly.
Both the state government and the Moriki-led House of Assembly have yet to respond to this development despite several efforts by our correspondent to hear from them on the issue.
The Senior Special Assistant to the state governor on Media and Communications, Mustafa Kaura said it was the responsibility of the state House of Assembly to respond.
In his words, “The response is supposed to come from the state House of Assembly since the issue directly affects them.”
Efforts made to get the reaction of the House spokesperson, Bello Madaro, proved abortive as he could not be reached on phone after several attempts.
