ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Governor of Ebonyi State, Francis Nwifuru has called for total independence of the legislature in line with the principle of checks and balances in government.
Governor Nwifuru made the call while addressing members of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on National Housing Fund who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House in Abakaliki, the state capital.
The committee, which had commenced investigations into alleged non-remittance of money to the National Housing Funds (NHF) from 2011 till date, is headed by Dachung Bagos.
The Governor, who was a former two-time Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, noted that the independence of the three arms of government especially the legislature, would help build virile institutions for effective governance in the country.
He said, “I am much delighted with what the Speaker is doing right now, by reactivating what had long been forgotten.
“It is now left for the leadership of the National Assembly to call a spade a spade and do the needful.
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“Equip your leadership, give them strength, give them immunity and they will protect you,”
Also, the Governor decried the situation where several housing estates in the state have remained uncompleted for years while the completed ones are allocated to non-civil servants.
Nwifuru said that the development is contrary to the essence of the National Housing Fund.
He urged members of the committee to do a thorough investigation without bias and ensure that anybody found culpable will be made to face the law.
In the same vein, Governor Nwifuru said his administration will not take loans from commercial banks.
“I am not ready to borrow one naira from the bank, the one I get from the Federal Government and internally generated revenue is enough for me to develop my people,” he noted.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on National Housing Fund, Dachung Bagos, said the lawmakers were in the state to inspect ongoing housing projects and to sensitize the government on the need to ensure proper remittance to the Housing Fund by civil servants.