By Gloria Ikibah
The House Committee on FCT Area Councils and Ancillary Matters has invited the Minister of State FCT and the Six area councils Chairmen to appear before the Committee on Tuesday 16th July.
The Committee also threatened to sanction the Ministry and the six area councils, if they deliberately refused to appear next week.
This resolution was sequel to the refusal of the Chairmen of Area Councils to honour the invitation of the Committee on Tuesday in Abuja.
Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Fredrick Agbedi, said the action of the minister of state and the council chairmen is a breach of their constitutional responsibilities and a disservice to the people they serve.
“The committee’s oversight function is essential to ensuring accountability and good governance, and this refusal to honour our invitation undermines these efforts”, he said.
According to Agbedi, the six area council chairmen had not flagged-off, completed or commissioned any project in the area councils, unlike the Minister.
“This is appalling considering the huge monthly allocation running into billions of Naira to each of the six area councils in the last one year and beyond”, he added.
He said the committee, would not hesitate to invoke its power to ensure that the area council operate in the best interest of the people.
Earlier, a member of the committee, Rep. Ikonne Ifeanyi, said it was a show of disrespect and lack of regard for the House that the Minister of state and her council chairmen refused to appear before the House after they were duly invited.
“Why must we invite someone here and they will give us the date they will appear? What about the risk people took to be there? We should not be seen pleading for them to appear before us.
“My own decision is that they should be the ones to look for us. If we don’t stop this arrogance, it will not stop.
“Henceforth, we will not approve anything for both the minister and the area council chairmen, and as a matter of fact, we will tell the president to remove Wike as the FCT minister.
“I hereby move as a motion to bring this to the floor of the house for them to come and explain why they are not honoring our invitation,” he said.
Also speaking, Rep. Adesola Adebayo, a member of the committee, said that the function to oversee the activities of the council areas resides in the House.
He said as former council chairman of Apapa Local Government in Lagos State, the chairmen should know that they are extensions of the state House.
Rep. Adebayo stated that no chairman dares not to appear before the state House of Assembly because they have the power to remove them.
The lawmaker said that he considered the attitude of the area council chairmen as an affront on the House of Representatives for them to have been invited and they refused to come.
“They were fully invited but wrote a letter within an hour saying that they would not be coming.
We should apply the maximum pressure on them; they should be accountable to the legislature.
“It is disrespectful and disregardful for the House of Representatives for them not to have shown up,’’ he said.
Rep. Nurudeen Abbas, however, appealed that the minister and council chairmen be given the last chance.
“Let’s communicate with them again, and if they fail to appear again, then we should sanction them”.