BY ABIA ONYIKE, POLITICAL EDITOR
The Governor of Ebonyi State, Francis Nwifuru on Tuesday advocated for the total independence of the Legislative Arm of the Government to enable them perform their legislative functions and provide checks and balances in governance.
Nwifuru made this known while addressing the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee Members on non- remittance of National Housing Fund who paid him a courtesy visit at the new Government House Centinary city Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
DAILY Sentinel reports that the Committee which has commenced a probe into alleged non-remittance of the National Housing Funds (NHF), is headed by Dachung Bagos with the mandate to investigate non-remittance and utilisation of the Fund from 2011 to date
Governor Nwifuru, a former two-time Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, observed that independence of the three arms of Government especially the Legislature would help build virile Institutions for effective governance in the Country.
“I am much delighted with what the Speaker of the House of Representatives is doing right now, by reactivating what had long been forgotten. It is now left for the Leadership of the National Assembly to call a spade a spade and do the needful. Equip your leadership, give them strength, give them immunity and they will protect you.”
He also decried a situation where Housing Estates sited in the State have remained uncompleted for years whilr those completed are allocated to non-Civil Servants, saying it runs foul of the actual essence of the Fund.
“I am not ready to borrow one naira from the Bank, the one I get from the Federal Government and Internally Generated Revenue is enough for me to develop my state”.
He urged members of the Committee to do a thorough investigation without bias and ensure that anybody found culpable will made to face the full weight of the law.
Earlier in his remark,, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on National Housing Fund, Dachung Bagos said they were in the State to oversight ongoing Housing Estate Projects and to sensitize Government on the need to ensure proper remittance of Housing Fund by Civil Servants. Reports by Abia Onyike.
