The House Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Councils and Ancillary Matters Tuesday threatened to withhold appropriation to the FCT administration and the six area councils.
This followed the refusal of the Minister of State, FCT Mariya Mahmud and the council chairmen to honour the invitation of the lawmakers.
The panel particularly excused the council chairmen of disregard and incompetency.
A member of the committee Ikonne Ifeanyi, said it was a show of disrespect and lack of regard for the House that the Minister and his council chairmen refused to appear before the House after they were invited.
“Why must we invite someone here and they are giving us the date they will appear? What about the risk people took to be there? We should not be seen pleading for them to appear before us,” he said.
“My own decision is that they should be the ones to look for us. If we don’t stop this arrogance, it will not stop.
“Henceforth, we will not approve anything for both the minister and the area council chairmen and as a matter of fact, we will tell the president to remove Wike as the FCT minister.
“I hereby move as a motion to bring this to the floor of the house for them to come and explain why they are not honouring our invitation.”
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On his part, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Fredrick Agbedi, said he viewed the action of the minister and the council chairmen as a breach of their constitutional responsibilities and a disservice to the people they serve.
He said the six area council chairmen had not flagged off, completed, or commissioned any project in the area councils, unlike the Minister.
The Chairmen’s conduct in this regard implies that they are not willing to account for their stewardship and the logical inference is that, they are avoiding accountability.
According to him, “this is appalling considering the huge monthly allocation running into billions of naira to each of the six Area Councils within the last one year and beyond. This figure is outside taxes and rents, charges and other revenues collected by the councils.
“As a Committee, We will not hesitate to invoke our powers to ensure that the Area Councils are operating in the best interests of the people. We owe it to the residents of the FCT to ensure that their welfare is being adequately addressed. We therefore call on the Area Council Chairmen to work fully with the Committee as any attempt to frustrate these efforts will be met with appropriate legislative sanctions”, he added.
Also speaking, Rep. Adesola Adebayo (APC-Lagos), a member of the committee, said the function to oversee the activities of the council areas resides in the House.
Rep. Nurudeen Abbas (PDP-Oyo), however, suggested that the minister and the council chairmen should be given the last chance
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