July 04, (THEWILL) – On June 17, 2019, the Edo State House of Assembly was inaugurated as the 7th Assembly by the clerk of the House, Alhaji Yahaya Omogbai, in a controversial manner.
It was inaugurated amid a struggle for who would emerge the principal officers of the house between members-elect loyal to the Governor Godwin Obaseki and supporters of the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole.
But two years in the life of the Assembly, the leadership of the House reeled out bills and resolutions passed by the house as part of its second anniversary achievements.
The Speaker of the House, Marcus Onobun, listed, among the resolutions passed, the approval for the state government to access loan facilities valued at N34.3 billion from commercial banks and the capital market between 2019 and 2021.
Onobun said that out of the N34.3 billion, the sum of N25 billion was approved for the government to be accessed through the issuance of bonds or notes either by way of public offer, book building, private placement or such other methods or any other method.
He said the loan, which was approved on October 14, 2020, was raised from N20 billion to N25 billion.
The speaker gave the breakdown of other loan facilities approved for the state government in the period under review to include a short-term infrastructure facility of N1.8billion from Sterling Bank Plc issued to the government on December 4, 2019, as well as a facility of N2.5billion from Access Bank meant for the funding of the building and expansion of the Edo State Medical/Health Care facilities and to acquire necessary medical equipment on July 27, 2020.
Also approved for the state government was a short-term infrastructure finance facility of N1.5billion from Sterling Bank Plc on September 1, 2020 and N3.5billion loan obtained by the Edo City Transport Service from the Bank of Industry limited on December 4, 2019.
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