Onwuka Nzeshi
19 November 2008
Abuja — It was drama yesterday as the House of Representatives Committee on Ethics and Privileges battled to nip in the bud, a brewing crisis over the purchase of 380 Peugeot 407 cars for House standing committees.
While the investigative hearing session conducted by the committee interrogated four of the five lawmakers fingered in the alleged plot to destabilise the House, the accused lawmakers regrouped into what became known as the Transparency Group and demanded that the House conducts a full scale investigation into the saga to unveil any shady deal that may have occured in the course of the controversial transaction. A similar group, Integrity Group, came up during the car scandal that rocked the speakership of Hon Olubunmi Etteh.
Whereas, the Ethics and Privileges Committee during the sitting showed clear signs that it had concluded its investigations, the Transparency Group led by Honourable Tam Brisibe said the search for the truth about the transaction has just started. Although the new group claimed to have confidence in the Ethics and Privileges Committee, their latest move in search of unfettered probe and full disclosures appeared to be in the opposite direction.The atmosphere at the sitting of the Ethics and Privileges Commitee was tensed. The accused persons namely Honourables Wale Adegoke, Kayode Amusan, Solomon Ahwinahwi and Independence Ogunewe were called in one after the other and made to face the panel to defend allegations that they plotted among themselves to undermine the integrity of the leadership of the House. A similar session was held for Hon. Gbenga Oduwaiye last week.
The four lawmakers who appeared yesterday denied all the allegations and disowned self-acclaimed activist, Comrade Uma Farouk, who named them as accomplices in a petition he sent to the committee last week.
Minutes after the interrogations were concluded, all the accused lawmakers held a joint press conference where they were joined by Honourables Tam Brisibe and Folake Oshinowo.
According to the Transparency Group, the car purchase saga must not be swept under the carpet but must be thoroughly investigated to unravel the grey areas of the deal. They aligned themselves with the petitions and tesimonies of Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo and argued that the issues raised by Keyamo were too weighty to be ignored or treated with levity.
They argued that in the face of the obvious hardship that the common man is facing today in Nigeria and given the fact that all institutions of the state are maintained with tax payers' money, it was morally wrong for the speaker to go for a Mercedes Benz S600 official car which is the topmost of the range when a Mercedes Benz S500 could still have served the purpose.
Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole, has however said that the House will not relent in its legislative activism that has resulted in unprecedented discoveries "in the way we are governed" despite his present travails. Bankole said this during a meeting with the Chairman and Members of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, (RMAFC).
Bankole disclosed that such unprecedented discoveries that had led to the hiring of blackmailers and hired activists by vested interests to distract and destabilise the House on bogus allegations include the discovery of N450 billion unspent fund, N3 trillion unremitted fund from revenue generating agencies, secret accounts and sale of oil blocks without necessary fees paid togovernment account, among others. He called on RMAFC to always avail the House information that will assist in effecting positive changes in governance. Earlier on, Engr. Hamman Tukur, the chairman of RMAFC told the Speaker and the leadership of the House that as atNovember 14, 2008, the amount outstanding in Excess Crude account is $20billion adding that instead of this fund being use to develop infrastructure or put in the Consolidated Account of the Federation, it is being used to develop other economies abroad and some local banks where they are lodged, with the support of Central Bank of Nigeria. He called for enactment of a revenue allocation formula for the federation arguing that at present, "it appears as if we operate three governments in Nigeria namely: The Federal Government, the Central Bank and the NNPC all running different and conflicting accounts."
He said if Excess Crude money is paid to the ConsolidatedAccount, the Parliament will be able to monitor it toward developing roads, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure adding that this will not lead to inflation as some had argued.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. 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.
