Sportty: LOCAL NEWS

Plateau 8th assembly passed 31 bills in 4 years

Plateau House of Assembly passed 31 bills during the four years of the 8th assembly.

According to the speaker, the bills passed had direct bearing on lives of the people of the state.

Going further, the assembly was able to achieve the feat owing to the support and cooperation accorded him by his colleagues.

The Plateau House of Assembly says it passed 31 bills during the four years of the 8th assembly. Speaker of the assembly, Joshua Madaki, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) in Jos on Wednesday, June 5.

NAN reports that the 8th assembly in the state was inaugurated on June 8, 2015.

Madaki, who became speaker in July 11, 2018, after his predecessor, Peter Azi, was impeached, said all the bills passed had direct bearing on lives of the people of the state.

He added that bills, which had been assented to by the governor are fundamental to the growth and development of the state. “In all, the 8th assembly successfully passed a total of 31 bills in the last four years.

“These bills will surely lift the history of the state, because they are so fundamental to the path of driving good governance to the people," he said.

Madaki added that the assembly was able to achieve the feat owing to the support and cooperation accorded him by his colleagues and also staff of the assembly.

He also commended the cordial relationship the house enjoyed with the executive arm in the state, and urged that same gesture be accorded the incoming 9th assembly.

Madaki, however, decried paucity of funds in the assembly, which according to him, hindered performance of legislative functions optimally.

“One thing I will urge the executive arm is to ensure timely release of funds to the incoming assembly to enable it carry out its functions diligently.

“The financial bottleneck where funds have to pass through memos, approvals and releases is a serious challenge and should be checked,” he said.

NAN reports that a valedictory session to end the tenure of the 8th assembly will hold on Thursday.

Yoruba group slams Obasanjo over Fulanisation, Islamisation claim

Southwest group Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum has accused ex-Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo of trying to blackmail Nigerians with his Fulanisation, Islamisation claim.

The group noted admittedly that while there are security challenges across the country involving the Fulani folk, it is wrong to give it such an interpretation.

Yoruba Ronu says it is clear that land displacements and reprisals are largely responsible for the scuffles the Fulanis have been involved in Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has come under fire afresh from a southwest group Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum which has accused him of crying wolf when there is none over alleged gradual Fulanisation and Islamisation of Nigeria.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Forum discarded Obasanjo's alarm saying on Wednesday, June 5 that land displacements and reprisals are responsible for Fulani-related clashes in northern Nigeria.

President of the Forum, Akin Malaolu, said in a statement it is totally wrong to give it religious or ethnic colouration.

“We can say succinctly that former president Obasanjo was deliberately deceitful and in greater dishonesty in his phantom claim.

”History which relied on facts and evidences are both missing in his conjectures. Modern generation of our youths and some elders may not understand that the North experienced two eras that shaped their entire land.

“The system of government before the advent of jihad was a period of prosperity that made it possible for slaves to rise through various tasks including the military,

”But with their conquest, the system of administration changed drastically and weakened the slaves and to their offspring.

“History recorded the events that gave the Fulani people a space in modern day Nigeria and their foothold in the North came through conquest beginning from 1808 [211 years ago]"

Obasanjo said this in a keynote address at the 2019 Synod of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), held in Oleh, Isoko South council area of Delta state.

He spoke on the topic ‘Mobilizing Nigeria’s human and natural resources for national development and stability.’