Workers in Plateau State who are currently on an industrial action on Thursday beat up top government officials and blocked members of the state’s House of Assembly from entering their offices, consequently delaying the presentation of 2013 budget estimates by governor of the state, Jonah Jang.
The workers, who assumed control of the Assembly complex from as early as 8am, carrying anti-government placards and chanting songs, specifically descended on Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Stephen Barko and Special Assistant to the Governor on Youths Mobilisation, Mr. Kwamkur Silas.
However, after security was reinforced later in the afternoon and canisters of tear gas fired into the air, Governor Jang was able to present the bill to members of the House, only few of whom were in attendance.
He announced a total budget estimate of N133.4bn, tagged Budget of Continuity and Inclusive Growth III, which was broken into N85bn for capital expenditure and N48.3bn for recurrent expenditure.
Similarly, Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa proposed a budget of N176.48bn for the 2013 fiscal year, a breakdown of which reflected N74,441,824,583 for recurrent budget and N102,038,518,425 for capital expenses.
Presenting the budget, named Budget of Consolidation and Advancement, Yakowa lamented the state of insecurity in the North, saying it, in addition to lack of funds, has slowed down the implementation of the 2012 budget.
He revealed that the inauguration of a task force on revenue generation has yielded the increase of monthly internally generated revenue from N350m in January to N650m in November.
The works sector got the highest capital estimate of over N14bn, to be expended on completing road projects. Education got N7.4bn, health N5.4bn and agriculture N2.8bn. He also listed the opening balance as N8bn, expected IGR as N29.09bn, statutory allocation from Federation Account as N65bn and SURE-P as N3.372bn.
