RAYMOND OZOJI reports
Investigations into the goings on in the Anambra State House of Assembly have revealed that the current 8th legislature is in disarray as Honourable Bernard Udemezue the lawmaker representing the marginalized people of Ayamelum state constituency exposed the actual amount lawmakers in the 8th assembly receive as constituency funds on his social media handles.
Udemezue was equally stripped off his position as the Chairman House of Assembly Committee on Homeland Security for also exposing the excesses of the state local security called Agunechemba, a member of the combined Operation Udo Ga Chi security forces in the state.
Udemezue who unseated the former Speaker of the House to represent Ayamelum Local Government Area in the ongoing 8th assembly, told this journalist exclusively that a colleague of his moved a motion for his social media posts and comments to be investigated on the grounds that they were injurious to the reputation of the House of Assembly.
Udemezue stated that rather than investigate what he described as inhumane treatments Agunechemba unleashed on the citizenry citing the case of the female NYSC member who was stripped naked in the course molestation as one out of the numerous heinous crimes being committed by the security outfit, maintained that he would continue to uphold the truth even in the face of conspiracies as he promised his people in Ayamelum state constituency.
He said that the sin he committed was because he posted his overhead allowance and the constituency empowerment funds for the people of Ayamelum state constituency on the social media.
According to him, lawmakers in the 8th assembly used to receive N7.5 Million every three months and later upgraded to N10 Million quarterly and he had to update his constituents because he believes that constituency empowerment funds are for the people and not for criminal politicians as he described them.
The astute lawmaker berated the fact that rather than make the money public, politicians personalized constituency project funds and deploy them at their discretions to the detriment of their constituents.
He explained that the few that will attempt to disburse the constituency funds will buy shuttle buses, take pictures with the recipients as evidence of make-believe empowerment scheme and thereafter go behind to collect money from the beneficiaries of the shuttle buses as hire-purchase, stressing that the crop of politicians in his description do not have the interest of the people at heart.
Udemezue who stated emphatically that he was not the type of politician that will conceal constituency funds from his people in Ayamelum, said he chose to be transparent and accountable to his people and it became a problem in the House of Assembly as his colleagues claimed that his social media posts were threatening because their constituents are beginning to demand accountability from them.
The Ayamelum assembly representative further disclosed that another crime he committed was that he visited a gas plant in his constituency that has been exploring gas in Ayamelum; destroying their roads with their heavy duty trucks and polluting their environments while the gas exploration company paid zero corporate social responsibility to the host community and the host ocal government area, Ayamelum.
The lawmaker who revealed that he visited the gas firm in the company of Ayamelum youths, maintained that he was shocked to the bone marrow when the gas firm revealed that they have not done a single corporate social responsibility scheme in the council area in spite of the devastations the company's exploration activities have caused the people.
Udemezue therefore informed this journalist that his colleagues in the 8th assembly became angry with him because he shouldn't have gone to the gas firm in his constituency since he was not the Chairman House of Assembly Committee on Petroleum Resources even as he insisted that it is incumbent on him to visit the gas company because it is in his constituency and his people are suffering the negative impacts of the exploration.
He said they have invited the House of Assembly Committee on Petroleum Resources on three different occasions to oversight the company's exploration activities in Ayamelum but all to no avail, emphasizing that his colleagues are angry with him because he confronted the gas company; because he exposed the marginalization they are facing in Ayamelum as well as the supposed staff quarters of a health centre in Omasi already being occupied by goats and other animals because it is dilapidated beyond recognition, adding that Ayamelum has never had a functional healthcare centre in the last 12 years.
Udemezue said he has advised members of the 8th legislature to start using constituency empowerment funds for their constituents because the people are no longer happy with the legislature. That the people are disappointed with the House of Assembly because they are the weakest state assembly in the federation.
He equally alleged that if one presents a motion reflecting the needs of his constituents on the floor of the House of Assembly, his colleagues would say the motion will puncture the fame of the governor, pointing out that only motions of commendations for the governor reigns in the current legislature.
He said that the governor is being commended for constructing roads with what he mentioned as scandalous amounts appropriated for the roads and that if he questions why such amount was appropriated, they will say that the governor is constructing stone-base roads that will last for 25 years.
The lawmaker stated that the roads which his colleagues claimed have minimum of 25 years guarantee were already collapsing upon construction and they want him to be quiet about it.
He said he has been very supportive to Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo but will also not be silent about the many decades of marginalization and underdevelopment of his constituency, adding that he is ready to go to jail or shed his blood to redeem Ayamelum from political oblivion.
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