Deputy speaker fingered in Delta LGA crisis

– Friday Osanebi, the deputy speaker of Delta state House of Assembly accused of sponsoring crisis

– Council boss Nkechi Chukwurah faces suspension

Friday Osanebi, the deputy speaker of Delta state House of Assembly, has been accused of orchestrating crisis in the Ndokwa East local government area.

Osanebi who represents the area at the Assembly, was accused by the Councillors of the Council of sponsoring the present crisis of wits between the Council Chairman, Nkechi Chukwurah and a larger number of the Councillors.

Twelve of the fifteen councillors had purportedly adopted a resolution to suspend the council boss over allegations of financial misappropriation while three declined on the ground that the twelve councillors were dancing to the tune of Osanebi.

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The Minority leader of the Legislative Arm, Godstime Egworabor, who is still serving an indefinite suspension slammed on him since September last year, however described the alleged plan to suspend the Council boss as the height of legislative immorality, when the House never deliberated on the income and expenditure statement prepared by the Executive arm.

“If you look at the present economic situation, it is so bad that somebody will be talking about misappropriation. Where is the money coming from? Somebody is behind the present crisis, and I make bold to say that the crisis rocking the council is being orchestrated by the deputy speaker, tell them I said so, Hon. Godstime Egworabor said so. 

“My last encounter with them last year showed that he has been playing negative role in the legislative arm, boasting that he has 70% of the lawmakers, so they can do anything, they can abuse the natural process and go free,” Egworabor said.

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While efforts to reach the Deputy Speaker were futile, a source close to him distanced him from the crisis of the Council, and advised the embattled council boss to make peace with the aggrieved councillors.

Naij.com reports that last Tuesday, Leader of the Legislative Arm, Matthew Uzorka who was flanked by eleven of his colleagues told journalists that a resolution to suspend Chukwurah as the Council Chairman has been sent to the State House of Assembly for ratification.

Uzorka listed her sins to include financial misappropriation, operating the council without an approved budget, and award of revenue collection contracts to her siblings without due process.

The Council Chairman, Chukwurah, however denied the allegations, saying that she has never touched funds of the Council since she came into office on November 17, 2014.

She also denied giving out revenue collection contracts to anybody, disclosing that all the council chairmen in the state have engaged revenue consultants from Lagos State to boost the rate of remission to council coffers.

“I have not given out any revenue collection contract to anybody. In fact, all the councils in the state have given the revenue collection to some consultants from Lagos State. 

“We all unanimously agreed to give it out so that we can get more proceeds, because we discovered that the people we give it locally were under remitting, in fact, most of them do not pay to the council,” she said.

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