By Nick Dugba
The Taraba state House of Assembly has approved the request of Governor Darius Ishaku for a supplementary Appropriation Bill of N6,694,280,800:00, made up of the sum of N135,759,893:00 as virement, N5,793,601,476:00 as recurrent expenditure and N900,679,324:00 as capital expenditure,in line with Section 121 4(b) of the constitution.
This was as part of the 2016 Supplementary Appropriation Bill sent to the House by His Excellency, Governor Darius Ishaku, on 7th December, 2016.
To this end, the House had referred the Bill to the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Chaired by Edward Baraya, PDP, Karim 2 Constituency for further deliberation.
Presenting its report during plenary Wednesday, presided over by Speaker, Peter Abel Diah, the Chairman of the committee, made the following observations.
That “the Supplementary Appropriation Bill is necessary because of the Federal Government policy to support the States with budget support funds. The Taraba state share of the fund is N6,568,283,420:00.
“That there is another refund of N125,997,380 by the NNPC to the State. Thus, Taraba state expects a total of N6,694,280,800:00 and therefore the need for the supplementary Bill” from the Consolidated Revenue Funds of the State.
After the Bill was debated on the floor of the House, it was unanimously adopted by the House and the Speaker then requested the Clerk to communicate the Governor on the new development.
Also, the House had passed into Law the Taraba State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency Bill 2016. This was sequel to a report of the House Committee on Water Resources and Rural Development.
According to the Speaker, the House had succeeded in setting a record by passing two separate Bills into Law in a single day.
Meanwhile, a heated debate ensued during the consideration of the report of a Bill to establish the Taraba State Inter-religious Council.
The bone of contention was the issue of Chairmanship role to be shared by the two major religions, Christianity and Islam. While some members, especially Bashir Mohammed, APC, Nguroje constituency, favored Co- Chairmanship to be shared between the two faiths, others argued for a Chairman and an Executive Secretary to be shared by the two faiths.
The issue of traditionalists being represented in the Council was also stressed upon if justice was to be served.
At the end after much debate, the issue was amicably resolved with the option of Chairman and Executive Secretary positions to be shared between the two faiths prevailing, as part of amendment of the committee report.
The Bill for a Law to Establish the Taraba State Council for Inter-religious Affairs was sponsored by Charles Maijankai, PDP, Karim 1 constituency, while the House discussed the general principles on the Bill and referred it to the Committee on Justice, Judiciary and Cabinet Affairs, Chaired by Bashir Mohammed, APC, Nguroje constituency.