The Osun House of Assembly will begin to exercise full financial autonomy as from January 2022, the Speaker, Mr Timothy Owoeye, has said.
Owoeye made the assertion on Tuesday in Osogbo, on the last day of the 2022 budget defence exercise organised for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Osun government.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Osun 2022 budget defence came to an end with the Office of the Governor, Osun House of Assembly and House of Assembly Commission taking their turns to defend their budgets.
The speaker said that Gov. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun has already signed into law the state Assembly Autonomous Bill..
“We are starting Osun Assembly’s autonomy next year and the committee for its startup has already been setup.
“The governor, Gboyega Oyetola, is committed to giving the assembly autonomy. It’s just some administrative bottleneck that is still serving as impediment to having full fledge autonomy.
“By the grace of God, we are starting our full fledge autonomy next year and this means we don’t have to take our files, financial demands, expenditure and salaries to the governor for approval again.” Owoeye said.
The speaker, however, pointed out that the autonomy of the assembly did not translate to more money for them.
He commended his colleagues for their dedication and commitment all through the budget defence exercise and described it as successful.
Mr Moruf Olanrewaju, the Majority Leader of the Osun House of Assembly, later presented the sum of N1.9 billion as the budget of the state Assembly for year 2022. (NAN)
