The Minority Leader of Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Chijioke Chukwu has cautioned the PDP-led government in the state against any plans to recruit Commissioners without due process, saying such must be resisted.
He accused the state government of undermining the authorities of the State Assembly with a purported ongoing recruitment plan for Commissioners, saying democratic tenets must not be crucified on the altar of illegality.
Speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, the lawmaker representing Bende North in the state Assembly said the constitution has bestowed on the legislature the power to screen commissioners before inauguration or rejection.
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According to him, if the state government goes ahead to inaugurate commissioners without screening by the Assembly, it amounts to illegality, and any remuneration paid to them regarded as stealing of public treasury.
“It is constitutional that any commissioner nominated by the executive arm of government, it must be read on the floor of the House of Assembly for it to be valid”, he said.
Hon. Chukwu insisted that an ad-hoc committee or committee, on the whole, must screen such nomination(s) and revert to the Executive for appropriate action.
He said anything short of this is a breach of the constitution, therefore illegal and unconstitutional. He said anyone produced through this process is not a Commissioner in the eye of the law and should be prosecuted.
The lawmaker, therefore, urged the state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu not to ridicule the Assembly by by-passing it in the recruitment of new commissioners.
He called on people of goodwill to join hands in and condemn what he called an orgy of illegality about being perpetrated by the state government.
