From Probe To Praise: Lagos House Denies Querying Sanwo-Olu

Apparently faced with the backlash from its supposedly hasty probe of donations into the Lagos State COVID-19 funds, the Lagos State House of Assembly on Saturday backed down.

The House in a statement has rather described the efforts of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his team in the fight against the spreading COVID-19 pandemic as worthwhile.

The commendation followed popular angst against the recent House move to compel the governor to delegate a superior officer to regularly account for inflows into the state’s COVID-19 fund.

The House had on Thursday at a plenary session presided over by Speaker Muadshiru Obasa asked the governor to account for expenses incurred from donations received in support of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the state.

The House had at that session asked Sanwo-Olu to introduce a co-chairman from the executive arm to represent state’s COVID-19 Incident Commander before the House.

But responding in the face of the criticisms to its move, the House has turned the quizzing into a commendation of the governor.

While noting legislative efforts initiated by the House to support the governor’s efforts discredited the report in some sections of the media which it said gave the impression that it had asked Governor Sanwo-Olu to account for the COVID-19 funds donated to the state by kind individuals and organisations.

It said it had not concluded on the report of its Committee on Health concerning the observations raised by the Executive in relation to the bill but only debated some of the issues raised.

“There were no conclusions or decisions reached by the lawmakers at the sitting on Thursday, May 7, 2020,” the statement said.

Hon. Tunde Braimoh, Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Security and Strategy, said in a statement on Saturday that the House never particularly asked the Governor to start accounting for the donations as reported, especially at a time when the challenge is still being tackled.

The Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, had, during the sitting, explained that the Governor cannot be invited by a Committee in the event of the need for clarifications post-COVID-19 pandemic.

He thus opined that to avoid a sort of friction between the Legislature and the Executive, the position of a co-chairman should be introduced in the bill.

“Looking at the situation at hand where it might be difficult to follow every letter of the constitution, there is the need for us to set aside a fund for the governor to expend in this situation,” Speaker Obasa had said.

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