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Nigeria: Health Scam - There Must Be No Sacred Cow-AC
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This Day (Lagos)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Lagos
Action Congress (AC), has said everyone involved in the N300 million unspent budget scandal in the Ministry of Health should be made to face the full wrath of the law.
AC said this yesterday, in reaction to resignation of the two ministers and suspension of some top officials of the ministry.
"While we are delighted at the 'resignations' and suspension by the Presidency, of the key officials involved, we will like to warn that the senators who were said to have joined in sharing the money should not be let off the hook, if indeed it is proved that they are liable," the party said in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
"Newspaper reports say that the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, and her counterpart in the House of Representatives reportedly shared a part of the booty with members of their committees. To the best of our knowledge, this report has not been denied.
"It is, therefore, necessary for leadership of the National Assembly to ensure that their members who are involved in the scandal do not escape punishment, unless the anti-corruption fight is meant for the executive arm of government alone," AC said.
The party recalled that recently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had to make a nation-wide broadcast to expose some key lawmakers over their alleged involvement in the bribe-for-budget scandal in the Ministry of Education.
Shortly after, the AC said Obasanjo instigated the removal of those allegedly involved in the scandal, including then Senate President Adolphus Wabara.
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"A similar scenario is playing out now. While the Executive has taken a bold action to show that its anti-graft war is not a fluke, we await the action of the legislature concerning its members who have been accused of sharing the money.
"In other climes, these lawmakers would have owned up to their misdeed, beg the nation for forgiveness and quit. But with the culture of impunity pervasive here, those who have wilfully shared the public money will rely on sheer bravado to hoodwink the public, keep their loot and position," it said.
AC said government should go further by investigating other government ministries and agencies, to determine the pervasiveness of the money sharing culture by top government functionaries.
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