Benue Assembly Suspends Otukpo Council Chairman

Benue House of Assembly has ratified the suspension of chairman of Otukpo local government area, Maxwell Ogiri, for six months.

The suspension followed the debate on the report of the House Standing Committee On Local Government, Security And Chieftaincy Affairs on its interaction with the chairman and the legislative council members.

In a lead debate, a member of the committee, Cephas Dyako of Labour Party Konshisha State Constituency said the committee discovered that there was an atmosphere of distrust among members of the council.

He said, “There is a communication gap between the chairman and the legislative council, because the chairman even locked the legislative chamber. We also discovered that both the submission and passage of the budget were not in tandem with the law.”

The Majority Leader, Saater Tiseer, informed the House that the committee failed to do due diligence on the responsibility assigned to them.

Tiseer said the issue involved financial impropriety and that was not captured in their findings.

The Speaker, Hyacinth Dajoh, directed the immediate reopening of the chamber to enable the legislative council members conduct their affairs.

Dajoh said that members of the committee should explain to the ad hoc disciplinary committee why they should not be suspended for failing to carry out a thorough job on the matter.