ENUGU — The Special Committee on Extortion constituted by Hon. Edward Ubosi, Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly on Tuesday released another invitation to the Chairman of Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, Josef Onoh to appear before her at the Conference Hall of the Assembly complex on Tuesday 28th September 2021 by 12noon.
The invitation according to Jeff Mbah, Chairman Committee on Information and member of the Special Committee, “is the third and final invitation to be extended to Josef Onoh, Chairman ECTDA”.
He further stated that Victor Nnam, Commissioner for Lands was also absent for the meeting for which he was duly invited; “the House hereby extend another invitation to the Commissioner to appear before the Special Committee same time and date with the Chairman ECTDA”.
“The specific reason for inviting these public officers is to harmonize revenue collections in the state so as to avoid corruption and extortion; there have been issues of double collection, duplication of functions by different Agencies of the State Government, hence overbearing on the masses, negatively affect investment and wellbeing of the people.”
“We wanted all the institutions involved to come together and do the needful so that their job will be streamlined and their duties made to be in line with the laws of the land.”
The Chairman Committee on Information further revealed that the Special Committee did not only invite ECTDA and Ministry of Lands but many other offices have participated in this exercise; the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the three Local Government Areas in Urban Area in the state, the town planners and revenue collectors, Enugu State Waste Management Authority amongst others had appeared before the committee.
Commenting on the malicious accusations making waves on the social media, Mbah revealed, “These two public officers, Chairman ECTDA and Commissioner for Lands, have recently published some malicious and libelous information against this House,”
“The House as an institution will not engage an individual on a press jamboree. We will engage in dirty fights done in social media; we would rather choose to be distracted by unwarranted attacks and use of cheap language to bring the image of this noble institution to disrepute.”
“We as the House therefore insist that the invitation we extended to these two individuals is in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as it concerns the duty and functions of Enugu State House of Assembly; refer to Section 129, subsection 1 & 2 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.”
News making waves in the social media allege that the staff of ECTDA who went to honour the invitation of the House was turned back by the Chairman of the Committee, Chinedu Nwamba because they came ‘empty-handed’.
A statement attributed to the Agency states that the greatest challenge faced in ECTDA is the different attempts by various committees of the State House of Assembly to extort the Agency and which their proofs are in the record.
Hopefully, Josef Onoh and Victor Nnam will present themselves on Tuesday, 28th September 2021 to set the record straight.
The first and second invite was slated for 15th and 21st September 2021 but was rebuffed; failure to appear on the third and last invitation will see to the lawmakers exhausting all constitutional means. “The House has a way of getting people who fail to appear before her,” Mbah explained.
