During its plenary on Friday, the Lagos State House of Assembly decided not to pass the 2019 budget.
The House only took the presentation of the report of the Appropriation committee as contained in its order paper for Friday sitting.
Observers of the Assembly had concluded when they saw the order paper for the day’s sitting that the budget would be passed as was always the case.
The Chairman of the Appropriation committee, Gbolahan Yishawu presented the report at plenary and had to skip some parts because of its huge volume.
After his presentation, Majority Leader Sanai Agunbiade said because of the volume of the report and its technicality the House would have to allot another day for the comprehensive debate of the report.
It is after the debate of the report and necessary amendments that the third reading of the Bill will be taken before its passage.
Meanwhile, if the recommendations of the Appropriation committee is adopted by the House it means the budget size will increase from the original N852.317b to N874.96b; that is a difference of about N22.541b from the figure presented to the House by the governor in February.
Although the House did fix a date to debate the report, it however adjoined sitting till Monday.
For now Lagosians still have to wait for year 2019 budget to be passed almost five months into the new financial year which has never happened in the history of the state at least since the commencement of the current democratic dispensation.
Credit: thenationonlineng.net
