allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Senate Hands Off Iyabo (Page 1 of 1)

The Senate yesterday washed its hands off Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello and drew her attention to the risk of losing her seat in the upper legislative chamber if she continued to be absent from plenary sessions.

The lawmakers' position came as an Abuja High Court threatened to order her arrest if she fails to submit her reply on point of law to the written submission of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

It is over three weeks now since Senator Obasanjo-Bello stopped attending either committee or plenary assignments following her involvement in the N300 million scam in the Ministry of Health and her arraignment by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to answer to corruption charges.

Her colleagues, however, said they could not longer act on the N300m scam as it affected its committee on health because the matter is in court.

Senate spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze, told reporters yesterday that though attendance of plenary was voluntary, one ran the risk of losing the Senate seat if stipulated conditions were not met and that the estranged senator faced the risk if she continued to absent herself from plenary sessions.

"Attendance at sittings in plenary is voluntary, though a senator is required to put in a minimum of 181 days in a year in plenary session and two-thirds of the 181 days sitting qualifies a senator to sit in chamber. So it's not the responsibility of any senator to fish around for Iyabo if she does meet statutory stipulations an interested person or a member of her constituency can notify the leadership, drawing attention to her absence and tenure lapse. The Senate president will in turn write INEC, it became automatic and INEC will conduct another election to fill the vacancy," Senator Eze explained.

Speaking further on Iyabo, Eze stated, "The Senate cannot at this point in time be required to account for Iyabo. The matter has been charged to court, so it is now beyond the Senate."

Corroborating Eze's argument, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) told LEADERSHIP that Iyabo's issue was "squarely before the judiciary" and that if the court needed her to appear in person they know what do to and how to make her appear. He said the Senate no longer has any hand in a matter that was before a court of law, and that there was no need for unnecessary dramatization of the issue.

Order 22 of the Senate standing rules states, "A senator shall, to the best of his ability, regularly attend the sittings of the Senate and those of the committees of which he is a member."

It could be recalled that Senator Iyabo, who was initially given a clean bill of health by the Senate, had agreed to receiving N10 million out of the N300 million unspent 2007 fund. Since then she has not made herself available in court to answer to her charges, nor has she cleared herself of the allegations, even in the media.

The minister of health and the minister of state, Prof. Adenike Grange and Gabriel Aduku respectively, have since been charged and are answering the charges against them.

The Senate yesterday had a brief sitting and adjourned without handling any item slated for the day.

Eze explained that the Senate needed to suspend plenary because of other very important official engagements in the ECOWAS parliament which the deputy Senate president, who presided, was a member, including majority of the senators who needed to be in attendance of the ECOWAS parliamentary opening.

Also, several committee engagements needed to be handled by Senate at the same time.

At the court, presiding judge, Justice Salisu Garba said threatened to order Iyabo's arrest when counsel to the EFCC, James Busang, urged the court to vacate its earlier order made on May 2, 2008 on the arraignment of Obsanjo-Bello.

According to him the non filing of reply on point of law by counsel to Obasanjo-Bello is to cause unnecessary delay in the matter.

Counsel to Obasanjo-Bello, Bankole Akomolafe, had filed a motion seeking leave of the court for an extension of time within which to file their reply on point of law.

Justice Garba granted him the leave, since counsel to EFCC didn't oppose that application.

But counsel to Obasanjo-Bello further told the court that he wanted to withdraw his earlier motion on preliminary objection and a motion on notice for interlocutory injunction seeking to restrain the EFCC from prosecuting his client.

In reply, counsel to EFCC drew the attention of the court to the second reply of applications that it amounted to an abuse of the process of court.

He described an abuse of court process as the improper use of the judicial process to the irritation and annoyance of the adverse party to the case, such as instituting a multiplicity of actions or applications on the same subject matter against the same opponent. The EFCC urged the court to guard against the abuse of its process.

Justice Garba, in his ruling, said if Obasanjo-Bello failed to file reply on point of law to the submission of EFCC later than 9am on May 15, 2008, it will set aside its earlier order made on May 2, 2008 concerning the arraignment of Obasanjo-Bello and adjoin the matter to Thursday this week for adoption of written address.

Obasanjo-Bello is challenging the charges over her alleged involvement in the sharing of the N300 million unspent fund in the federal Ministry of Health.

She is also seeking an order of the court quashing the two-count charge against her, saying that the charges disclosed no prima facie case against her.

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