By Ogar Monday
Following criticisms trailing the recurrent absence of Cross River governor, Ben Ayade, the speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly John Gaul Lebo revealed recently that his office has no powers in the law to stop the Governor from travelling even beyond the constitutionally allowed 90 days.
Lebo made the startling revelation while fielding questions from journalists at the secretariat of the Association of Cross River Online Journalists (ACROJ) in Calabar where he pointed out that the assembly was helpless as to the time allotted for a sitting governor to spend outside the state as well as transmitting power to his deputy while away.
“There is no responsibily under the law for the speaker of the house of assembly or any member to stop the governor from travelling even if he is out for ninety days.
“There is no provision of the law that says the speaker must force the Governor to hand over to his deputy anytime he is travelling outside when he is incapacitated or when he is going for medical leave”
He argued that the governor was part of a team and hence government does not come to a halt in his absence as there are other members of the team like the deputy governor and the commissioners who carry on governace and make sure things go well when the governor travels.
It will be recalled that governor Ayade has come under intense criticism from some opposition players who argue that he has signed several MOUs with none or very little implemented so far while his aides posit that it was necessary as he aims to reconstruct the state’s economy.
However, CrossRiverWatch findings also reveal the governor who has been in Abuja for almost two weeks is running away from the some administrative challenges due to the non impressive state of the local economy with a lot of approvals carried out without “Cash Backing” according to a source in government house, Calabar.
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