Ondo Assembly Snake Saga: ‘We Won’t Approve Akeredolu N30b Loan Request’
The face-off between the members of the Ondo state House of Assembly and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu over the invasion of the chambers by snakes deepened Monday as the lawmakers fired back by threatening to stop his request to borrow N30b to fund capital projects.
Speaking with newsmen in Akure, the chairman of the House Committee on information, Hon Gbenga Omole said the lawmakers would not approve the request if the governor declines their request for a better and conducive environment to carry out their legislative duties.
Omole who was responding to the governor’s allegation that the members of the assembly were out to blackmail him and his administration denied that they were out to blackmail the governor as he alleged.
According to him “They want to borrow money now. I am a member of the Appropriation Committee.
‘They want to borrow N30 billion. If they did not do what we want, we will not allow that to happen. Out of the money, they said they want to rehabilitate Accountant General’s office, you want to repair the Accountant General’s office, you don’t want to repair the independent arm of government.
“It is not going to happen. The worst is that they will not give us second term but we will do what the people of Ondo State like.”
“The truth of the matter is that that place needs attention. The way they merged the issue of snake with the collapsed part of the building is the issue. The termites have eaten the roof of the building.
“To set the record straight, we never sat on Wednesday and Thursday. Actually, we wanted to sit on Thursday, but when we came in some part of the roof had caved-in.
‘I granted the interview that on Wednesday that there was a snake and we could not sit, it is not that snake chased us out of the chamber. That was what everybody wrote. Journalists have liberty to write what they wanted to write.
“On the issue of termite, everybody knows that place needs a facelift; that is a fact that the governor knows. It is the joining of snake with termite that embarrassed the governor.
“The governor accused us of blackmail, why is it that the past leadership of the House has not done anything about it. “Every year they put renovation of the Assembly in the budget and it was not implemented. The executive brings in budget and you passed it. The place where the budget is passed is termite infested.
“It is not going to be business as usual. That is my own stand as the spokesperson of the House. Do they not repair their own offices? There was a snake on Wednesday. On Thursday when we were about to sit, we discovered termites have eaten the roof.
