By Ifeoma Aka
Enugu Sept. 28 2021
A showdown is brewing between the Executive and Legislative arms of the Enugu state government as a result of the activities of some officials of the executive arm of the government.
Some State Government officials, specifically, the chairman of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA), Mr. Josef Onoh, and the commissioner for Lands, Mr. Victor Nnam, are said to have ignored, for the third time, invitations sent to them by a special committee set up by the State House of Assembly to investigate “illegal extortion of residents of the state” by the agency and the Ministry.
The House Committee Chairman on Communication, Jeff Mba, stated this on Tuesday in Enugu while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the Committee’s meeting at the Assembly Complex.
Mba pointed out that Onoh and Nnam were invited to brief the lawmakers on the allegations leveled against the two government establishments that they head but they refused to honour the invitations.
According to the House spokesman, the activities of the agency and the ministry are seriously scaring away local and foreign investors from the state.
According to him, investors were being made to pay through their noses before setting up their businesses in the state, stressing that the activities of the officials were robbing the state of internally generated revenue.
The lawmaker, representing Oji River Constituency, disclosed that the Seventh Assembly would not sit by and allow any state government ministry, department or agency (MDA) to scare away potential investors, pointing out that the two government officials were also invited to educate the lawmakers on the way their establishments generate revenue for the government and they refused to honour the invitations.
Reacting to the refusal of Onoh and Nnam to appear before the Committee to assist it with its investigations, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Uche Ugwu, expressed dismay at the attitude of the duo and described it as a total disregard for the state’s legislative arm of government.
The Deputy Speaker, who dismissed representatives of the ECTDA who came in the stead of their chairman, stressed that the Assembly would not interface with them as they were not competent to either answer or provide information needed by the lawmakers.
Ugwu noted that the legislators, as the representatives of the people, would not sit by and allow their constituents to be extorted by government ministries, departments or agencies under the guise of generating revenue for Enugu state.
Mba said that the assembly would take a decision on the refusal of Josef Onoh, and Victor Nnam to appear before the Committee, pointing out, however, that the Committee had no choice than to submit its report, including its observations as well as the challenges encountered in the course of the investigation, on the floor of the Assembly in spite of the refusal of the invited government officials to appear before it.
According to him, the report would guide and also enable the seventh Assembly to take a decision on how to harmonise the vexatious issue of multiple taxation on Enugu residents, to put an end to the ongoing illegal extortion in the metropolis.
“Part of the constitutional process is to send the report to the floor of the Enugu State House of Assembly for consideration.
“And in doing so, we are going to mention all the problems we encountered and the Assembly will decide as a Committee of the Whole on the next action to take,” Mba said.
