ABAKALIKI, Federal Republic of Nigeria. AGAINST the backdrop of the resolution of Ebonyi state House of Assembly that the state and local government joint account, JAAC, be frozen over alleged fraud going on in the local government system, Governor Martin Elechi, yesterday, insisted that the lawmakers have no constitutional powers to do so.
According to him, the powers reside in the executive arm of government and not the legislature.
The governor in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Dr. Onyekachi Eni, emphasised that only a court of competent jurisdiction could order the freezing of any accounts of government.
Elechi described the resolution of the state House of Assembly as ultra vires and without effect and urged the local government areas and development centres in the state to ignore the resolution of the House and continue to carry on with their lawful businesses.
The governor further reminded the state House of Assembly that its resolutions were only advisory, persuasive and had no force of law.
According to him, the House of Assembly also lacked the powers to stop the ongoing sale of forms for allocation of stalls at Ebonyi International Market, which construction he initiated in 2009 and had invested N18.3 billion.
“Of the 7,070 stalls which are the full capacity of the market, a total number of about 5,600 stalls have already been completed while work is ongoing in the remaining ones. Sale of forms for the allocation of stalls are for the already completed ones and not for the uncompleted,’’ he said.
Credit: Vanguard (Nigeria)
