The Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Adebo Ogundoyin alongside speakers of the 35 State Houses of Assembly on Thursday met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja. The agenda of the meeting which started 11am was initial undisclosed as journalists were not granted access into the venue.
However, it was uncovered that the closed door meeting with the Speakers of State Houses of Assembly is to fast track the implementation of Local government and State Houses of Assembly autonomy. Debunking the earlier reports of his absence at the meeting alongside Edo and Bayelsa States Speakers in the media, Ogundoyin said he was at the meeting and even had tete-a-tete with the president after the meeting.
He said, “I was present at the meeting and I even had a brief talk with Mr. President. We talked about the possibility of State Police consider the rate of insecurity across Nigeria, financial autonomy for local governments and of course States assembly.“
Also as a representative of the youths’ constituency, I thanked and congratulated him personally for implementation of the not too young to run act. “Presently in Oyo state, we have benefited greatly from the act. We have 2 Honourable members bellow the 30years in the house of assembly, and so we have them in other States too like Zamfara.”
The speakers were led by the Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly and Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa.
Speaking with State House Correspondents after the meeting, Obasa noted that although the amended 1999 Constitution had incorporated the independence and financial autonomy for state legislatures, it was not being implemented in many states.
“We urged the President to come in by an executive order for this implementation to move faster,” he said. The group also called for the devolution of powers to the states and local governments through a review of the Exclusive Legislative list.