National Assembly Speaker Samwel Sitta has rejected a proposal by Igunga MP Rostam Aziz for a panel of judges to resolve the controversy surrounding the Richmond emergency power generation contract.

Talking to The Citizen by telephone yesterday, the Speaker said continuing with the argument to refute Parliamentary findings on the Richmond scandal or not does not serve any useful purpose.

"The issue was closed two years ago and the existing facts are self sustaining and indisputable," he said.

He explained that the involvement of Mr Aziz was with regard to the Caspian Company which was associated with him and had its postal address and email account used by Richmond Development Company (RDC) LLC for its correspondences.

"The company could not have done that in the absence of any relationship between them," Mr Sitta said.

He said it makes no sense to go out and dispute the smallest of the obvious involvement by Mr Aziz with the Richmond scandal. "It surprises me," he quipped.

Mr Aziz told The Citizen on Tuesday that judges should review and give the "final say" on the parliamentary report on the scandal, which was described by a deputy minister as a "fabrication."

Mr Aziz said the judges should be picked to look into the report and come up with "a verdict" on his supposed role in the whole saga.

"If the judges find me responsible in any way, I will resign from my posts and positions in the party so that legal action can be taken against me," he said.

Mr Aziz is a member of the national executive committee (NEC) and central committee (CC) of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).

He made the suggestion several days after the chairman of the Parliamentary select committee which investigated the Richmond scandal, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, warned that there was evidence to prove what is contained in the report.

"There is evidence to prove that what is written in the report is true and those who continue to question it could be prosecuted," he warned during one CCM secret meeting held last week in Dodoma.

A law lecturer from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Dr Sengondo Mvungi, also on Tuesday described the demand by Mr Aziz as untenable in law as Parliament's decree was immune to the tasks being sought for.

Mr Aziz had maintained that what was written in the report regarding him, was a lie.

"What is in the report is total fabrication; the truth is that I am not involved in any way with the Richmond scandal... they were not fair at all," he said.

However, he had failed to defend himself in Parliament last April when deputy Speaker Anne Makinda blocked him from tabling a personal defence statement.

The Richmond report saw the resignation of the former Prime Minister, Mr Edward Lowassa and two other members of the cabinet, Dr Ibrahim Msabaha and Mr Nazir Karamagi.

Following the Premier's resignation the entire cabinet was dissolved and President Kikwete had to form a new one that brought in Mr Mizengo Peter Pinda as the Prime Minister.

Parliament formed the committee to investigate circumstances surrounding the contract between the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) and the US-based RDC.

This was after the latter failed to honour its contract to produce 100MW of emergency electricity at a time when the country faced a serious power shortage even after clinching the contract which has been inherited by M/s Dowans.