PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
As part of its efforts to strengthen legislative and judicial autonomy, the Cross River State House of Assembly has passed the Judiciary Funds Management Bill 2021 as well as the Legislature Funds Management Bill 2021 into law.
The two Bills were passed during plenary sequel to the the presentation of the reports of the two Adhoc Committees earlier set up by the House to carry out indepth appraisals of the bills.
The Sponsor of the Legislature Funds Management Bill and Chairman of the Adhoc Committee, Hillary Bisong (Boki II) in his report stated that the; “State Assembly on Monday, 19th February, 2015 joined it’s counterparts across the country and voted to alter the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) to provide for the funding of State Houses of Assembly directly from the Consolidated Revenue Funds”. He added that the constitution was amended accordingly.
According to him, “the above constitutional provision was given a boost by President Muhammadu Buhari, when he signed Executive Order 10 of 2020 granting financial autonomy to the Legislature and the Judicial arms of Government”.
While deliberating on the two bills, the Legislators observed that the financial autonomy of both the legislature and judiciary would greatly enhance the performance of these two arms of government.
On his part, The Speaker, Eteng Jonah Williams (Yakurr II) expressed satisfaction and happiness that the Bill were passed during his time. He reiterated that the passage of the bills was a landmark achievement for the 9th Assembly.
Hon. Williams further expressed appreciation to the members as well as staff for ensuring the passage of the bill while directing the Clerk Bassey Ekpeyong to forward clean copies to the State Governor, Ben Ayade for his assent.
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