Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Hon Blessing Agbebaku
has explained why only 354 million
naira was appropriated to the Office of the Deputy Governor, Rt Hon Comrade Philip Shaibu in the 2024 fiscal year.
Recall that the state budget for 2024 which was signed into law by Governor Godwin Obaseki on December 15, appropriated the sum of N19 billion to office of the Governor, Secretary to the State Government got N8bn; the House of Assembly got N13bn while the Head of Service got N968 million.
Speaking to journalists on the development in his office on Thursday, Agbebaku said the Deputy Governor is not expected to carry out too many functions in 2024.
According to him, the Deputy Governor doesn’t have constitutional functions bestowed on him except those which are allocated to him by Mr Governor.
Agbebaku dismissed rumours that the issue has caused animosity among members of the Assembly.
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He also denied that N13bn was allocated to his office, adding that the allocation was to the State House of Assembly and not to the office of Speaker.
Agbebaku further defended the action saying: “Allocation has been done in a way to reflect the office. However, on this occasion, the Governor stated clearly that since the Deputy Governor had not performed his functions in the outgoing year because of his aspiration, which he recognised to be a huge one and time-consuming, most of his functions were relocated to other offices as the governor has the powers to do so".
“All of us know that the Deputy Governor doesn’t have constitutional functions bestowed on him except that which are allocated to him by the Governor. So, most of those things that the Deputy Governor used to do, the Governor has taken away from him.
“The Deputy Governor has even complained that he is no longer working. If you are not working, why allocate money to the office?
“The money is not allotted to you as a personal gift, it is given for work. So, if you are not working, naturally the money will not come, and there is no way you can be working effectively when you have an ambition of becoming the Governor.
“We are talking about a year where most of it, almost 11 months, will be on electioneering. So, how are you now going to function properly as a Deputy Governor? In his magnanimity, the Governor has said, ‘I don’t want to be a stumbling block to your ambition of becoming the Governor of the state.’, the Speaker concluded.