By Amos Aar
THE BENUE State supplementary Financing and Appropriation and two other Bills on Tuesday passed second reading on the floor of the Benue State House of Assembly.
At Tuesday’s plenary, presided over by the Speaker, Hon. Hyacinth Aondona Dajoh, the House also read for the second time, the Benue State Mental Health Enhancement and Regulation Services Bill, 2024, and The Benue State Social Protection Agency Bill.
Leading the debate for the second reading of the Supplementary Financing and Appropriation Bills, Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Saater Tiseer, said the bill is borne out of the desire to fund deficiencies or gaps observed in the 2024 approved estimates passed in December, 2023, in order to meet the campaign promises of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia.
Hon. Tiseer noted that in the last one year, the APC-led government created new ministries, parastatals and agencies for effective service delivery in addition to the old ministries to make them more focused and result-oriented. He noted that the changes are among the cogent reasons for the supplementary budget.
According to the chief press secretary to the speaker, Terver Zamber, the house also received a motion to halt the imposition of leadership on Benue Transport Unions by government officials.
Moving the motion, the majority leader, Hon. Tiseer, said the leadership crises in the Benue State transport unions may degenerate into violent crisis witnessed in some states of the nation and called on members to intervene into the matter to find lasting solution into the matter.
The House condemned in its entirety the undue interference by government officials in the affairs of the transport unions and directed that the offices of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Unions and Labour Relations and the Principal Special Assistant on Youth and Student Affairs to steer clear of the leadership of the transport unions by allowing them to choose their own leaders to avoid further crisis.
Consequently, the House further directed the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and the Chief of Staff to the Governor to organise an awareness workshop and assign roles to the governor’s aides to avert overlapping of duties.
Also, a motion calling on the Benue State Government to mobilise relevant agencies to investigate and stop the incessant killing of people by cultists in the North Bank area of Makurdi LGA was received at Tuesday’s plenary.
Mover of the motion and member representing Makurdi North state constituency, Hon. Berger Alfred Emberga, noted with dismay that the activities of the cult groups within one year has led to the death of more than fifty young men in North Bank.
The Assembly also screened and confirmed the nomination of Governor Alia’s kinsman, Dr. Abraham Gberindyer Chia, who hails from Vandeikya LGA, as the Auditor General for Local Government.
Chia is said to have over twenty years of experience in the civil service.
