Enugu Assembly orders arrest of state accountant-general

The Enugu State House of Assembly has directed the Commissioner of Police in the state to arrest the Accountant-General, Mr Paschal Okolie, for failing to appear before it for the third time. The Leader of the assembly, Mr Sunday Ude-Okoye (PDP-Awgu North), moved the motion for the issuance of a warrant of arrest on the accountant-general during plenary on Wednesday in Enugu.

 “This is the third invitation to him and there is no sign or reason why he is not here. As of today, he is in Enugu State.

“Maybe as one of us said yesterday that we have no powers, he feels that we have no powers indeed and he will continue to fry us like `akara’ in the frying pan. “So because of his continuous failure and neglect of this honourable House, l therefore evoke the powers bestowed on us to order the Commissioner of Police to issue a warrant of arrest on the accountant-general,’’ he said

Ude-Okoye said the arrest became imperative because of his consistent failure to appear before the assembly. “We are all from Enugu State and every time he pretends to be sick, but we keep getting information that he attends to his duty.

Ude-Okoye, therefore, moved that the accountant-general should be brought before the assembly on April 21. The motion, which was seconded by Chief John Anichukwu (PDP-Nkanu East), was put to vote and was unanimously passed by the lawmakers.  Okolie was invited by the lawmakers to explain why he decided to withhold the assembly’s monthly subvention.