By Damilare Adeleye
The Lagos State House of Assembly has rejected a new list seeking the screening and confirmation of six new nominees for cabinet positions.
The lawmakers made this resolve on the basis that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the State concealed the identities of the nominees.
This was made known in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Eromosele Ebhomele.
It was reported that at a sitting presided over by Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, the Clerk of the House, Barr. Olalekan Onafeko, read the letter before the lawmakers quoting the governor as seeking the confirmation of a commissioner-nominee and five nominees in the position of special advisers.
However, the letter only named the commissioner-nominee as Mr. Abiodun Ogunleye, while the identities of the nominees for the position of special adviser were not mentioned making the House resolve to write back to the governor for the remaining identities.
Dr. Obasa, while agreeing with the lawmakers that names should be attached to the letter, said: “it is necessary for us to know who and who would become part of the cabinet.”
Reacting earlier, the Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Adedamola Richard Kasunmu, observed that the letter did not follow the usual procedure of revealing the identities of the nominees.
“Thus, the process of not mentioning the names seems like coming through the backdoor,” he said.
He was supported by his colleagues, Hon. Ladi Ajomale and Hon. Owolabi Ajani, who noted that the previous lists from the governor had details of the nominees and that this made the screening by the ad-hoc committee easy.
“But in this case, it is only the commissioner-nominee that had a name attached to it and this is surprising. Maybe we should also pass information to the governor that the names should be specified,” Ajomale said.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State House of Assembly has invited the state’s procurement agency over reports of alleged spendings by the Offices of the Governor and the Deputy Governor.
“So we call on the committee in charge of procurement to invite the agency and others mentioned and do a thorough job on this in order to establish facts concerning the publications,” the Speaker said.