Olusegun Ariyo
The Osun Masterminds, TOM, an Osun-based Civil Societies Organisation has accused the Osun State House of Assembly of not responding to petitions written against it.
TOM made allegation during its State of the State address in Osogbo on Saturday.
Addressing journalists, the TOM Executive Director, Prof Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli urged the Assembly to be alive to its duties and know that it remained an integral part of its responsibilities to respond to letters and petitions written to it.
He also expressed worries over the Assembl’s refusal to respond to demands for accountability.
“We bemoan and condemn in very strong terms the irresponsibility of the Osun House of Assembly in the management of demands placed on them and response to petitions written to her.
“As a group, we have a record of petitions written to the House of Assembly by groups that form our coalition and those not even related to us at all.
“The House of Assembly should be a place of succour for the people they represent and one with the utmost standard of integrity, probity and accountability but when such ignores call for accountability and response to public outcry, it becomes worrisome.
“We charge the state house of Assembly to be alive to her duties and know that it is part of her responsibility to respond to letters and petitions written to her.
“No society thrives on impunity and lack of respect for the people with whom lies the ultimate power,” Oyedokun-Alli said.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the State House of Assembly has differed with the civil society group over petitions demanding accountability from it that had been allegedly ignored by the lawmakers.
Responding, the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Olamide Tiamiyu, said the Osun State House Assembly would not ignore genuine requests and petitions.
Tiamiyu, however, added the Assembly will not be harangued by the mischief of political activists who aimed to draw the lawmakers to its politics of distortion.
He said, “However, we will not be harangued by the mischief of some politicians disguising as activists, whose sole objective is to draw the House to its narrow politics of distortion.
“As much as we do not want to join anyone in a debate, we must point out the disregard for laid down processes in the filing of some of the petitions being referred to here, which we suspect was set out from the start to embarrass the House and not for genuine information.
“For clarity, some of the petitions are addressed to the wrong offices and attempt to make the persons behind it correct the error was never adhered to.
“For public information, we state that the appropriated fund for the House is public information that can be accessed either through the quarterly budget performance document published by BudgIT or the Financial of the State in every fiscal year.
“In any case that anyone requires further information, the appropriate authority is the Clerk of the House, who is the Accounting Officer of the House.
*It is also important to stress that the answers on expenditures of the House had at a point been provided by the State Ministry of Budget and Planning, exposing the characters behind the latest attack on the Assembly as nothing but political tools.”
