There was uproar at the Jigawa State House of Assembly on Tuesday over the refusal of the House Committee on Local Government to buy brand new Toyota Prado SUVs in the 2022 local government appropriation.
Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar had in November presented the budget estimate of N73,734,339,969,00 for the 27 local government council in the state before the House of Assembly.
The session turned rowdy after the House Committee on Local Governments presented its report before the floor of the House.
Part of the Committee’s recommendations is for the House to approve the removal of the respective local governments proposal of the sum of N30 million for the purchase of additional utility vehicles and use the money in other capital projects.
The committee however recommend that looking at the present economic situation and the fact that some local governments had already spent alot of money to upgrade their vehicles to standard and the money amounting to N81 billion should be used in capital projects.
Speaker of the House, Rt hon. Idris Garba Kareka, said the recommendations should be removed and local government chairmen allowed to purchase the vehicles as earlier proposed.
While the Member representing Dutse constituency, Hon. Musa Sule Dutse, along with his colleagues said the money has to be specified for its purpose as recommended by the committee or be put in to contingency funds.
The House therefore agreed with the committee’s recommendation and passed the 2022 local government appropriation.
Meanwhile the House has also recommended the increase of N744 million to make constituency project allocation N2.5 billion.
