The Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Hon Blessing Agbebaku, has explained that N354 million was allocated to the Office of the deputy governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu in the 2024 budget because he has no work to do in the coming year.
Daily Trust had reported that in the 2024 signed into law by Governor Godwin Obaseki on December 15, N19 billion was appropriated to office of the Governor, office of the deputy N345m, Secretary to the State Government N8bn; the House of Assembly N13bn while Head of Service got N968 million.
Speaking to journalists on the incident, Agbebaku said the deputy governor did not have constitutional functions bestowed on him except those allocated to him by Mr Governor.
According to him, the deputy governor is not expected to carry out too many functions in 2024.
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Agbebaku dismissed rumours that the issue had caused rift among members of the Assembly.
The Speaker who also denied that N13bn was allocated to his office, said the fund was to the State House of Assembly and not the office of Speaker.
He said, “Allocation was done in a way to reflect the office. However, the governor stated clearly that since the deputy governor had not performed his functions in the outgoing year because of his aspiration, which he recognised to be a huge one and time-consuming, most of his functions were relocated to other offices as the governor has the powers to do so.
“All of us know that the deputy governor doesn’t have constitutional functions bestowed on him except that which are allocated to him by the Governor. So, most of those things he used to do, the governor has taken away from him.
“The deputy governor has even complained that he is no longer working. If you are not working, why allocate money to the office?”
“The money is not allotted to you as a personal gift, it is given for work. So, if you are not working, naturally the money will not come, and there is no way you can be working effectively when you have an ambition of becoming the Governor”.
