The Abia State House of Assembly, has refuted a report that the House has passed into law, a bill to centralise local government funds and deny them financial autonomy.
The house further said the House did not pass any bill seeking to create a Central Management Agency for funds belonging to LGAs, which would compel the state to usurp LG powers describing it as fake.
The Deputy Speaker of the House Rt. Hon Austin Okezie, who refuted the report revealed that the bill the House deliberated on was ‘Abia State Rural Access Road Agency, (ASRARA)’, which is an Executive Bill that seeks to establish the Abia State Rural Access Road Agency.
There were reports that the Abia State House of Assembly had passed a bill to deny LG financial autonomy as was granted by the Supreme Court.
Refuting the allegations, the Deputy Speaker who also doubles as the House Committee Chairman on Media, denied the allegations describing it as misinformation peddled by those who are not informed.
The lawmaker disclosed that the ASRARA bill had been passed into law by 19 States of the federation including Ebonyi, Sokoto among others, revealing that it is a World Bank funded programme under RAMP.
He stated that it comes by way of Counterpart Funding for states that desire to participate in the project, stressing that both State and LGAs must play their parts in ensuring that they can access the RAMP project or attract them to construct roads in the rural areas.
The Deputy Speaker explained that for states and LGAs to access the project, it is logical for them to have the Rural Access Road Agency Law, which according to him, is a criteria to benefit from it, emphasising that the rural roads are located in LGAs, which is why the LGAs must be considered in this Bill.
Rt. Hon Okezie also debunked the allegations that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in the Abia State House of Assembly staged a walkout when the bill was passed into law to register their displeasure.
He explained that such never happened, informing that 16 members met at the Executive session of the House before members took permission to attend to pressing personal needs and was not connected to the deliberation of the bill.
The Umuahia East State Constituency lawmaker assured Abians that the bill, when passed into law, will be for the benefit of Abians, maintaining that the House deserves commendations from Abians for keying into what other states of the federation are benefiting from.
He also maintained that the bill does not intend to create a Central Management Agency for funds belonging to LGAs nor compel LGAs to usurp their powers as being speculated in some quarters.
The lawmaker however appealed to Abians to desist from peddling fake news in the guise of spreading information, lamenting that the social media space has been kept awash over the news that the House is against the Autonomy granted LGAs in the country.