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Nigeria: N300m Scandal - We'll Not Shield Anybody - Senate
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Leadership (Abuja)
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Ben Adoga
Abuja
As the sharing of the N300 million unspent 2007 money belonging to the Ministry of Health makes the rounds, leading to the forceful resignation of the minister of health and her deputy, Prof. Adenike Grange and Gabriel Yakubu Aduku respectively, and also the quizzing by the EFCC of senior officers of the ministry, the Senate has said that it would not shield any person found to be involved in the scandal.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Senator Omar Hambagda, told newsmen yesterday that the crime leading to the scandal took place outside the Senate and that all those involved, including senators, should be treated in the same way.
"If the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is prosecuting the two ministers and those involved in sharing the N300 million, the members of the committee (senators), if they are part of the sharing, should be treated the same way," he said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, whose committee has been alleged to have been given N10 million out of the N300 million unspent money, snubbed newsmen who had waited for about three and half hours to interview her.
Senator Obasanjo-Bello, who apparently knew she was being ambushed by newsmen when she was attending the National Steering Committee meeting on 2008 health conference in the Senate hearing room 1, burst out looking straight and refusing to comment nor answer any questions.
She was followed by a group of journalists and cameramen for about four minutes from the white house to the new Senate building.
When she got to the entrance of the building, one Stanley instructed the NASS security not to allow any journalist into her office.
"Make sure you don't let any journalist into my office," she declared, turned and walked away.
It was at this point that the newsmen turned back.
Reacting, Senator Hambagda said it was wrong in a democracy for newsmen to be barred from gathering information in public interest.
When asked if it was morally right for the Senate committee to collect money from those they are supposed to oversee, he said it was ordinarily wrong but that committees were allocated between one to N1.5 million quarterly, which was inadequate.
He said that was the reason the allocation for the National Assembly was increased in the 2008 budget so that they would not need to depend on the organisations they oversee or supervise for funding.
He said though the scandal would not portray the National Assembly in good light, but as chairman of the Ethics Committee he had his constraint, even if his privileges were breached, but that if the matter came to the Senate by way of a motion, the Senate would refer the matter to his committee and that it would be dealt with on its merits.
He said like the court, the committee would not go looking for culprits, but that they would only act when the matter was referred to them.
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So far, there is no official word from the Senate Committee on Health over its involvement.
The House of Representatives Committee on Health was said to have returned its share of the money that it did not know that it was part of the unspent 2007 budgetary allocation to the ministry.
The house said it was a tradition for the committee to receive funding for oversight activities.
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