From Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
The Gombe State House of Assembly has passed a resolution to address the deplorable state of federal roads in the state, especially the Gombe, Funakaye, and Nafada federal roads.
According to the Assembly, the resolve is to write a letter of reminder to the members of the National Assembly representing Gombe North to follow up and draw the attention of the federal Ministry of Works to the condition of the roads.
This was contained in a statement that was issued by the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the house, Umaru Ma’aji. He explained that the resolution was passed by the House shortly after receiving a report from the House Committee on Works and Transportation on the condition of federal roads in the state. He added that the chairman of the committee Mustapha Usman Hassan, disclosed that the committee had interacted with officials of the Gombe area office of the Federal Ministry of Works, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), and State Ministry of Works and Transport.
He further explained that during the meetings, the committee was informed that the roads project is captured in the 2024 budget of the federal government, adding that the house was advised to inform the federal lawmakers from Gombe State to follow up at both red and green chambers and federal Ministry as well as.
Meanwhile, the CIO also disclosed that the state house of assembly has passed into law the Gombe State 2024 budget that was recently presented before the house by the state governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya. According to him, the house increased the estimate presented by the state governor by N300 million.
He revealed that N208,064,000,000.00 was passed by the house against the N207, 750,200,000.00 earlier proposed by the governor. Umar said, “These followed the adoption of the report of the House Committee on Appropriation on the 2024 budget estimate after scrutiny. Presenting the report of its committee, the chairman Appropriation Committee Alhaji Aliyu Baba Manu representing Gombe North in the state House of Assembly said his committee observed that most of the MDAs’ budget officers are not conversant with the budget provisions which are guided by medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) and therefore recommend that henceforth budget office should transmit executive councils approved budget to ministries and as well as consider and approved Two Hundred and Eight billion, sixty-four million(N208, 064,000,000.00) as total budget size of Gombe State.
“The chairman Appropriation Committee said the 2024 budget which is tagged budget of continuity and consolidation focuses on the completion of all ongoing projects in the state started in the first tenure of the present Administration and added that 43% of the budget goes to the economic sector while 11% goes to the social sector,” the CIO stated.
He further disclosed that, “After a clause by clause consideration by the speaker Abubakar Mohammed Luggerewo at the committee of the whole and contributions by the members the bill was read for the 3rd term and passed into law, the speaker thanked his colleagues for the support and cooperation given to the committee members.”