Sanwo-Olu signs N873.5b 2019 budget, promises implementation in seven months

Five days after taking oath of office, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has signed into law the N873.5 billion passed by the state House of Assembly.

The governor said he would implement the budget within seven months, away from the 12 months circle a budget should be.

He signed the budget into law alongside three other bills comprising Neighbourhood Safety Corps Agency bill, Amended Act of the Lagos State House of Assembly Commission bill and Domestic Staff Service Providers’ bill.

Until the budget was signed yesterday by Sanwo-Olu, it was a subject of controversy between the state Executive and Legislature.

At a point, the budget was lost in transit with the Executive saying it has not received it while the Assembly said it had passed it though did not say if it has left.

The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, at the budget signing, represented by the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Gbolahan Yishau, gave the new breakdown of the budget to be N479, 691,073,705 for capital and N393,841,387,020 for recurrent expenditures, totalling N873,532,460,725. The new budget size thus has an increment of N21 billion different from what former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode presented in February.

After signing the budget, Sanwo-Olu said his administration would deploy all necessary machineries to ensure adequate implementation of the budget.

Meanwhile, the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, Lagos, has warned violent herdsmen, kidnappers, armed robbers, cultists and other criminal elements to stay away from Lagos and Ogun states or face the wrath of the law.

Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Shehu Lawal, who gave the warning yesterday during at a press briefing in his office, said: “There are rumours making the round that herdsmen have invaded South-West states. I want to assure you that herdsmen have not invaded my jurisdiction, which is Ogun and Lagos states. Few individuals, who they claimed were herdsmen tried nonsense in Imeko area of Ogun State and they were promptly arrested and charged to the court.

Besides, the AIG said that the Sallah celebration would be crime hitch-free.