A civil society group, Coalition for Good Governance and Accountability (CGGA), on Sunday expressed displeasure over the call on Gov. Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman to assent to the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill passed by the 8th Assembly in the state.
The group said that the bill could not be passed now because of its “statute-barred” status and must be re-presented to the 9th Assembly.
The Secretary General of the group, Hassan Omoiya, said in a statement in Ilorin that “the FOI Bill has our support as a coalition of Kwarans who desire transparency. ”
He, however, expressed the group’s displeasure at the ” pressure” on the new governor to sign a bill that was already statute-barred.
“The FOI Bill passed by the 8th Assembly is now statute-barred since the bill wasn’t assented to by former Gov. Abdulfatai Ahmed whose Assembly passed the bill.
“The bill will has to be represented to the new Assembly. That is the democratic practice all over the world.
“Anything short of that will be against the time-tested parliamentary tradition.
“The only thing the governor may also do is to urge the new Assembly to fast-track work on it. But he cannot sign it as it is now,” he added.
Elites Network for Sustainable Development, the group that sponsored the FOI bill, had called on AbdulRazaq to sign it into law.
The group insisted that the governor’s assent would confirm his commitment to running a transparent government.
