Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo And Sufuyan Ojeifo Abuja
12 July 2008
Lagos — Chairman of the Senate Joint Committee that investigated the administration of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from 1999 to 2007, Senator Abubakar Danso Sodangi, yesterday defended the interim report that indicted former FCT Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.
But despite his indictment, el-Rufai yesterday expressed full and unalloyed confidence in the Senate, whose Joint Committees on the FCT and Housing, is seeking the imposition of a life ban from participating in partisan politics or holding public office on him.
Sodangi, who spoke in an interview, said he stood by the recommendations proffered by the joint committees, even as he maintained that the el-Rufai should be banned from holding public office now or in the future under a democratic government.
He expressed confidence that the Senate would ratify the report when it resumes plenary on September 9 2008, given the thoroughness of the investigation, the committee's findings and recommendations.
According to him, "The recommendations were based on the preponderance of evidence that we have gathered. We have come to the conclusion that certain public officers are not fit for public office.
"When we resume from our recess, it would be formally deliberated, with the input of all Senators and a decision finally taken."
The committee, in its interim report, had recommended that el-Rufai should be made to account for N32 billion proceeds from the sale of Federal Government houses in Abuja.
The committee further stated, "After assessing the activities of el-Rufai in his duties as FCT Minister, we came to the inevitable conclusion that he should account for all funds collected by the ad-hoc bodies he raised during his tenure."
The committee held that "the house he obtained for himself where he signed as lessor and lessee be revoked as a person cannot sell an item to himself."
While insisting that he did not enrich himself by a kobo in the sale of federal government houses, el-Rufai said in a text message to our reporter: "I believe in the Senate. I am sure its plenary will see through the bias and bigotry of the committee and its sponsors and decide on this matter dispassionately."
El-Rufai added that although he is yet to obtain the report, which he intends to mull over, he awaits the Senate's final consideration.
He said the report of the Sodangi committee was not unexpected. The committee, he disclosed, "simply complied with the script of its masters and sponsors and did not allow facts to disturb their predetermined conclusions."
The former minister also revealed that should the entire Senate decide to adopt the report of the committee, he would be left with no other option than to take the matter to court which, he believes, will be the ultimate arbiter.
In the last administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a committee of the House of Representatives had also recommended that el-Rufai be banned from holding public office for life. The recommendation followed the panel's probe of the Pentascope management contract in NITEL over which the former minister was indicted. But el-Rufai went to court and had the ban quashed.
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