Blessing Agbebaku, the Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, has explained why 354 million naira was appropriated to the Office of Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu.
The budget, which was signed into law by Governor Godwin Obaseki on December 15, the Governor’s Office got an allocation of N19 billion, the Secretary to the State Government got N8bn; the House of Assembly got N13bn while the Head of Service got N968 million.
Speaking to journalists on the development in his office on Thursday, the Edo Assembly Speaker said the deputy governor is not expected to carry out too many functions in 2024.
According to him, the deputy governor doesn’t have constitutional functions bestowed on him except those which are allocated to him by the governor.
Agbebaku dismissed rumours that the issue has caused animosity among members of the Assembly.
He also denied that N13bn was allocated to his office but noted that the allocation was to the state House of Assembly.
The Speaker said, “Allocation has been done in a way to reflect the office. However, on this occasion, 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 that the deputy governor 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.
“We are talking about a year where most of it, almost 11 months, will be on electioneering. So, how are you now going to function properly as a deputy governor? In his magnanimity, the governor has said, ‘I don’t want to be a stumbling block to your ambition of becoming the governor of the state.’”