Onwuka Nzeshi
30 October 2008
Abuja — It was a stormy session yesterday as Lagos-based lawyer, Festus Keyamo, testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Ethics and Privileges investigating the alleged fraud in the purchase of 380 Peugeot 407 cars by the House.
Keyamo rose stoutly in defence of his allegation that the House leadership and Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Limited (PAN) involved in the car purchase had a lot of explaining to do over the deal. But some of the committee members suddenly began raising questions about how the lawyer came by his information, a development that heated up the sitting.
Also yesterday, Newswatch Magazine, which published the news of the alleged car purchase saga, said it was standing by its story, and would neither disclose its source to the committee nor provide further evidence beyond what it had published.
For about two hours, the atmosphere at the House Hearing Room 18 of the National Assembly in Abuja, venue of the sitting, was charged as Keyamo gave his evidence, much of which was based on the earlier letter he wrote to the House Speaker Dimeji Bankole and copied to all members of the lower chamber of the National Assembly on the car deal.
Keyamo, accompanied by two other lawyers from his chambers, told the committee that he had no problems with the House buying cars for its committees to facilitate their oversight functions, but raised questions on the unilateral award of the contract to PAN and the absence of competitive bidding in the process leading to the award of the contract.
He also alleged that PAN breached the terms of the contract to the extent that the automobile company quoted for the Peugeot 407 Sports Automatic model at the cost of N6.2 million per unit but supplied Peugeot 407 Comfort Automatic model (which costs N5.1 million per unit) at the N6.2 million per unit.
Keyamo alleged that there was a deliberate attempt by PAN to shortchange the National Assembly as only 20 cars delivered to the principal officers of the House met the contract specification, while the remaining 360 cars were of a different design, which ought to have been supplied at a lower cost.
Beyond the difference in specification and the disparity between what was quoted for in the contract and what was supplied, the lawyer raised questions about the alleged double taxation, the lack of any discount on the cars, wondering why such a large quantity of cars could have been purchased without those involved in the purchase negotiating for discounts.
Keyamo dismissed the defence put up by PAN that the change in specification and the absence of discount were due to the urgency in the contract.
He argued that there was no note of urgency in the contract and urged PAN to refund the difference of more than half a billion naira to the coffers of the National Assembly.
He also prayed the committee to bring to book anyone that would be indicted in the ongoing probe, insisting that the contract was skewed in favour of PAN to the detriment of the Nigerian tax payers.
"I see lack of financial prudence on the part of the leadership of the House and the management of the National Assembly. The test is how would I handle this transaction if it were my own money that is being used? Is it financial prudence to buy 380 cars and you do not have a discount? PAN said it did not grant discount because it was an urgent order, but there was no urgency in the letter of that contract to necessitate such an action," Keyamo said.
Under interrogation from the committee members who sought to know the authenticity of the documentary evidence tendered by him as well as the way they were sourced, Keyamo said the documents were not only authentic but have been sourced from the right places.
When drilled further by Hon. Yakubu Dogora on the implications of sourcing documents without applying for them through the official channels, Keyamo said he was prepared to face criminal prosecution if sourcing the evidence through non-official routes amounted to criminality or theft as insinuated by the committee.
Tempers rose as some committee members took the lawyer to task on many of his claims and allegations.
Chairman, House Committee on Ethics and Privileges, Hon. Sani Saleh Minjibir, however, sued for calm and decorum from both his colleagues and the lawyer.
But the altercation would not cease until the committee was forced to end the interrogation and Keyamo allowed to leave.
Meanwhile, the Executive Editor of Newswatch, Mr. Bala Dan Abu, who stood in for the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, Ray Ekpu, was also interrogated on the source and authenticity of the magazine's story on the scam.
Abu told the committee that while the news magazine stood by the content of its story, it had no further presentation, additional information or submission to make.
"This is the magazine I edit and I cannot deny any information contained in it. We stand by all the information contained in our story. It is not as if I have additional information," he said.
On whether there was still need to push for the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill (FoI) in the face of the prevailing situation where the mass media procure official secrets and publish stories such as the car purchase scam without bothering about its libelous implications, Abu told the committee that there was an urgent need to have the bill passed to ease the stress journalists go through in seeking information before every publication.
He said Newswatch as an institution had no reason to believe the defence being put up by PAN since series of attempts to get the automobile firm to comment on the allegations before the story was published were frustrated.
"Their (PAN) decision to talk now is suspect. If they believe they have nothing to hide why were they not forthcoming when we wanted their own side of the story before we published,"he asked rhetorically.
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