Sufuyan Ojeifo, Chuks Okocha and Tunde Sanni in Ibadan
21 April 2008
Abuja — The search by the Senate for the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is long-drawn and yet unproductive.
Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Mahmud Kanti Bello (Katsina North) who is saddled with the task of establishing her whereabouts told THISDAY yesterday that he has not come to the end of the road in his search.
Bello had come under Orders 14, 15 and 16 of the Senate Standing Rules 2007 (As Amended) to move a motion in which he referred the Senate to media reports by Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello that her life was under some dangers.
The Upper House had asked the Chief Whip to investigate her whereabouts and give a report on her safety or otherwise to the plenary tomorrow.
Iyabo was last seen in the Senate on Tuesday, last week, the day men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) reportedly trailed her to her No. 19 Alex Ekwueme Street, Jabi home in a failed bid to arrest and arraign her in court for collecting N10 million from the Ministry of Health in December 2007.
Bello, who spoke on phone from Kaduna , said that he would return to Abuja today and set necessary machinery and processes in motion to get in touch with her. According to him, "I know she is fully aware that I have been mandated to find out her whereabouts. I expect her to get in touch with me; otherwise, I will seek out ways to get in touch with her."
It would be recalled that the Senate had given Iyabo a clean bill penultimate week before launching a search for her last week.
Meanwhile, members of her constituency have issued a 7-day ultimatum for her resignation as a Senator. Also last week House of Representatives had weekend urged the Senator to come out of hiding and report to the EFCC, lamenting that her conduct has been constituting a huge embarrassment to the integrity of the National Assembly.
Operating under the aegis of Egba Lisabi Collectives, members of her constituency said at the end of the ultimatum which would expire by Friday, they would be left with no other alternative than to initiate the process of her recall from the Senate.
Accordingly, Lisabi Collectives said the people of Ogun Central Senatorial Constituency which Iyabo is representing have been greatly disturbed by her resolve to go into hiding in the face of allegations trailing her acceptance and spending of the sum
N10million offered to her, stressing that her conduct amounted to an admission of guilt.
Also ,at the weekend, Muslim youths in the country called for the arrest and detention of former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello pending the completion of the various investigations into their activities instituted by the two arms of the National Assembly
The Muslim youths under the aegis, National Council of Muslim Youth Organizations (NACOMYO) at a five-day national workshop on leadership and Muslim youths' development, stated that revelations from the adhoc committees on the tenure of Obasanjo as well as the involvement of his daughter in the N300m unspent allocation of the Federal Ministry of Health have shown that the duo betrayed the confidence reposed in them by Nigerians and therefore not fit to be rallying points for emerging leaders in the country.
The National President of the organization, Alhaji Muhammad Lawal Maidoki expressed disappointment that Obasanjo and his family deceived Nigerians with their anti-graft crusade "not knowing that they not only revel in corruption, they are symbols of corruption in the country."
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