Emmanuel Aziken, Inalegwu Shaibu and Bukola Ojeme
2 July 2008
Lagos — THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) drew flak, yesterday, from the Senate for Monday's arrest of two former Aviation Ministers, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and Professor Babalola Borishade, as well as one-time Managing Director of the National Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr. Roland Iyayi, within the National Assembly premises.
It called the action of the EFCC a desecration of parliament.
Giving bite to the Senate resolution, Senate President, Chief David Mark, affirmed that allowing further arrest of witnesses testifying before Committees of the National Assembly would portray the legislature as a tool of the EFCC.
The trio were arrested moments after their appearance before the Senate Committee on Aviation probing the utilisation of the N19.5 billion Aviation Intervention Fund.
The Austrian representative of Avastel SA, Mr. Georg Eider, was arrested last Wednesday after his appearance before the Committee on Aviation.
The Senate resolution followed a motion by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South) who upon Order 15 of the Senate Standing Rules said the arrests could hamper the Senate in its investigative duties.
He described the action as an infringement of parliamentary rights and privileges.
Support for the motion came from Senators Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu West), Manzo Anthony (PDP, Taraba North), Uche Chukwumerije (PPA, Abia North), Victor Ndoma-Egba (PDP, Cross River Central) and George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers) among others.
The only opposition to the motion came from the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Kanti Bello, who said there was nothing wrong in apprehending criminals within the National Assembly premises.
Contributing to the motion, Senator Ekweremadu, Deputy President of the Senate, said: "Even common sense dictates that a conducive atmosphere should be created for people to come into the National Assembly and testify. Moreover, the privileges of the National Assembly should be respected."
On his part, Senator Chukwumerije said: "If the Senate officially invites a guest to give privileged information, it is necessary so that a conducive atmosphere must be provided for the person to give the information so needed, without any form of intimidation, but the arrest by the EFCC shows that they are incompetent."
Senator Chukwumerije said allowing the practice could deter witnesses from appearing before National Assembly Committees.
The Senate Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Ndoma-Egba (SAN), in his contribution affirmed that the action of the EFCC was a violation of the Legislative Houses' Powers and Privileges Act and as such illegal and unlawful.
Responding to the comments, Senator Mark said: "If people who come here are allowed to be taken away at will by security agents before we wind up fully (on our investigations), what we are going to end up with is a situation where people would be scared away because of the fear of what will happen to them. The arrest that was done, in my opinion, was not based on the evidence that they have given but because somebody somewhere said something else.
"But since these people (EFCC) have this information, they should arrest them elsewhere. That is what we are saying. We are looking at it from a moral point of view. For people to come here and give evidence, we should not allow the security agents to come here and just arrest people and take them away.
That is my ruling. So, I sustain your point of order and I think that Senator Ayogu Eze should give the press a proper briefing at the end of the day. As much as possible, people who have committed or are suspected to have committed any offence should not be chased into the National Assembly.
The EFCC should summon them so that people who are invited here should not be arrested for offences not committed within the premises," he said.
Briefing newsmen at the end of the Senate session, Senate spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze said: "What happened today (yesterday) was an effort by the National Assembly to strengthen our democracy. The issue of arrest of official guests of the National Assembly is totally condemned by the National Assembly and is totally un-agreeable with legislative practice all over the world.
"The argument of the legislature is that we have privileges provided for by legislative powers and privileges Act. We also have privileges provided for by our standing rules as well as tradition in other legislatures.
"When we invite people, an official of government to come to the National Assembly, that person is assumed at the point in time to be wearing the toga of privileges of the institution that have invited him or her and, therefore, it will be wrong to come and arrest such a person," he said.
Fani-Kayode, Borishade remain in EFCC custody
The trio, however, remanded in EFCC custody yesterday facing inquisition over alleged irregularities in the expenditure of the N19.5 billion aviation fund.
The EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Babafemi, confirmed to Vanguard that the arrested men were still being interrogated at press time, foreclosing any hope of bail that could only be facilitated by the court.
A source close to the investigation confided in Vanguard: "The suspects will remain with us for another day, because, as you can see, they are still being interrogated, and since the courts have closed for the day, even if we conclude interrogation, they can only be admitted to bail when they appear before a court. So today (Tuesday) is definitely out of it."
Findings also revealed that investigators have formally requested to see some documents and some officials in the Ministry to corroborate the statements made by both Fani-Kayode and Borishade.
Family members, most of whom flew into Abuja, yesterday from Lagos, and some top officials in the Ministry of Aviation, who thronged the EFCC, were barred from seeing them, except their wives, who were allowed access to their spouses.
At about 2.45 p.m, the EFCC reception security had a hard time convincing the frustrated sympathisers to go back, without seeing them.
One of Fani-Kayode's aides, who brought his lunch, was turned back at the reception after he had tasted the food to confirm that it was poison-free
Meanwhile, ahead of his court appearance, Borishade, as learnt, has raised a legal team, comprising Chief Afe Babalola(SAN) and Mr Ricky Tarfa (SAN).
Borishade's Special Assistant, Mr Remi Ibitola, in a chat with Vanguard confirmed that his boss was in good health.
N2bn grant: Odili gave money to oil presidential ambition
Meanwhile, erstwhile Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mohammed Yusuf, yesterday alleged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State and former Aviation Minister, Babalola Borishade were the brains behind the N2 billion facility granted FAAN.
Testifying before the Senate Committee on Aviation probing the utilisation of the N19.5 billion Aviation Intervention Fund, Yusuf said Odili's gesture in providing the N2 billion for the repair of the Port-Harcourt airport was simply selfish and aimed towards realising his 2007 presidential aspirations.
Yusuf in his testimony also accused the immediate past Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, of masterminding his suspension from office for the purpose of populating FAAN with persons from the Minister's native Osun State.
The Senate Investigative Committee also demanded the restructuring of FAAN to allow for the reflection of the federal character principle in the manning of personnel in the agency.
Also yesterday, former Chairman of the board of FAAN, Captain Elendu Ukeje, accused Chief Fani-Kayode of breaching procedures to populate the agency with his surrogates.
In his appearance before the Senate Committee, Yusuf who was Managing Director of FAAN between May 2006 and November 2007 claimed ignorance on the terms of the N2 billion facility which was added to the N17.5 billion facility provided by government and the commercial banks.
He said: "The N2 billion from the Rivers State Government is an interesting thing. People say I should be a little bit careful or diplomatic.
But that was the time, actually, that Chief Peter Odili was going for the Presidency and there was no airport flying in Port Harcourt and in his wisdom he thought he wanted to get an airport that can at least do a bit of executive jet movements.
"That was the absolute truth and then the public and those who could afford could also come in chartered jets or in smaller aircraft. So, he gave N2 billion. People are just making noise because they do not want to state the fact. Only Professor Borishade and Chief Odili and perhaps, the former President knew the term or the understanding in that N2 billion.
"All Yusuf Muhammed was told was you get a cheque of N2 billion from the government, pay into the bank and smartly too, as if God was helping me, I created an account totally separate from the Zenith Bank and I called it Intervention Account 2-Port-Harcourt.
The account was opened in Abuja here....That was the account that was used in the beginning because of the pressure to pay Julius Berger N200 million for them to commence work, to pay some consultancy fees totalling N172 million and then to pay Julius Berger N1.5 billion when they started work..
"That was all about Rivers State Government. Nobody knows the term. If the government is saying it is a loan or it is not a loan, we do not know. Nobody has written anything about it; so they should call Odili and Professor Borishade to tell you the terms. Do I call it grant or loan? I do not know," he said.
Commenting on the staffing of the agency, he said while he was suspended by Fani-Kayode, the Minister caused the appointment of 17 senior staff in the cadre of Assistant General Manager of which seven were from Osun State.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
The problem with the first comment is that of myopic reasoning. This guys are to clarify how money under their ministries were wasted. The X-president decided to make the ministers both yorubas so the arrest now should never has "Tribalism" as the root cause. So lets call a spade a spade and move our country forward.
From ths article it is very clear again that the main problem behind the arrests is the overriding polity of TRIBALISM. Since almost all politicians operate and control the polity by TRIBALISM, THE COUNTRY CAN NEVER move forward as a nation unless and until the different TRIBAL make up of the country are allowed to fend and develop themselves separately. This can only be realized if the present 36 nonviable states are replaced by six (6) states each correspnding to the Geo-political division of the country. Unless this change is made, which will necessitate a modification of the constitution, the country is doomed.