Osun parliament to begin full financial autonomy in 2022 — Speaker

By Abimbola Abatta, Osogbo

The Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye said the parliament would begin to exercise full financial autonomy as from January 2022.

Owoeye made the assertion on Tuesday during the closure of the 2022 budget defence exercise organised for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Osun government.

The Speaker who said Governor Gboyega Oyetola has already signed into law the state Assembly Autonomous Bill stated that the committee for its startup has already been setup.

“The Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, is committed to giving the assembly autonomy. It’s just some administrative bottleneck that is still serving as impediment to having full fledge autonomy.

“By the grace of God, we are starting our full fledge autonomy next year and this means we don’t have to take our files, financial demands, expenditure and salaries to the Governor for approval again,” Owoeye said.

Owoeye, however, noted that the autonomy of the Assembly did not translate to more money for them.

He commended his colleagues for their dedication and commitment all through  the budget defence exercise and described it as successful.

Mr Moruf Olanrewaju, the Majority Leader of the Osun House of Assembly, later presented the sum of N1.9 billion as the budget of the State Assembly for year 2022.