….Pledges Concerted Efforts To Strengthen Legislative Democracy
Members of the Abia State House of Assembly have reconciled their differences and subsumed their political platforms to work for the interest of the state.
Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon Augustine Okezie, who is also the Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Media, made this known at his maiden press briefing, saying that the storm is over.
The 8th Abia Assembly which is composed of four political parties with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) having a slight majority was engulfed in when the ruling Labour Party made sure PDP did not produce any of the principal officers.
“What we’ve had thus far in the House are disagreements, not problems,” he insisted.
Hon. Okezie explained that the crisis witnessed at the onset of the 8th Abia House of Assembly was due to the “misrepresentation of the Constitution which makes it possible for any member to become principal officer irrespective of gender, party, age.”
“We have put that to rest,” he asserted, adding that “our brothers from the other divide (PDP) have come to terms with that issue”.
The House spokesman said that all the lawmakers on suspension and those that embarked on boycotting the House sitting during the stormy period have all ensured their normal legislative activities.
“A whole lot of Abians are expecting so much from us. And we have tasked ourselves to ensure that we give our best irrespective of the political parties we belong to,” he said.
Despite the initial squabbles, the Deputy Speaker said that the 8th Abia House was still able to carry out its constitutional functions creditably.
He said that in the course of the 2023 legislative year, the House passed three bills into law, namely the Local Government Appropriation, the Greater Aba Development Authority(GADA) and the 2024 State Appropriation Bill.
Okezie said that the bill to convert Abia State Polytechnic Aba to Abia State University of Education would be passed into law in 2024, adding that the bill was already at the Committee level.
On the relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government, the House Deputy Speaker said that “we’re lucky that the executive arm has always made.
He cited the 2024 Abia State Budget, which he enthused the executive arm had done “a thorough job before presenting the Appropriation Bill to us” hence it was passed with virtually no amendment.
