Written by Lanre Adewole, Bola Badmus and Idowu Samuel Saturday, 19 June 2010
The two main anti-Corruption bodies in the country on Friday indicated their readiness to probe the fresh alleged N9 billion scam involving the embattled Speaker, House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, once petitions detailing the allegations and evidences are made available by his accusers.
A group in the lower chamber under the aegis of ‘The Progressives’ had accused the Speaker of misappropriating the said sum which was the House of Representatives’ 2009 capital vote.
Bankole had ignored the call on him by the group to resign over the alleged scam, with the spokesperson of the group, Honourable Dino Melaye at a press briefing, disclosing that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) would be petitioned over the matter.
However, about a week after, Saturday Tribune findings at both the anti-corruption commissions showed that the absence of the petition, promised by the group, was the only reason they had not swung into action.
ICPC spokesperson, Mr. Folu Olamiti, told the Saturday Tribune that the commission was waiting for the group’s petition to commence its investigation into the alleged scam.
“We are yet to receive any petition on the alleged scam. Immediately we get the petition, we will swing into action and begin our investigation,” Olamiti said.
His EFCC’s counterpart, Mr. Femi Babafemi, noted that the same issue of petition was responsible for the delay on the commission’s part to commence probe into the matter.
Speaking on the alleged N2.3 billion car scam rocking the leadership of the House of Representatives since last year, Babafemi said Nigerians would soon hear from the commission the outcome of its investigation into the matter.
He noted that the case file was still with the legal unit, adding that “Nigerians will hear from us when we are ready.”
Meanwhile, as the House of Representatives resumes from its current recess on Tuesday, indications have emerged that the 360- member parliament may go into executive session with a view to dousing the tension that has built in the past few days over the allegation.
A group in the House tagged The Progressives led by Honourable Dino Melaye, had accused the Speaker of misappropriating N9 billion capital vote belonging to the House, just as it gave him a seven- day ultimatum to resign his position. The ultimatum expired last Wednesday.
Sources told the Saturday Tribune, on condition of anonymity, that there was strong possibility that the leadership led by Bankole would call for a closed session on Tuesday, rather than having a plenary session, in order to enable it douse the tension already generated in the media and the public by the Melaye group.
According to one of the sources, the Speaker is billed to order a closed session on Tuesday immediately members resume as a way to counter whatever tension and damage the Melaye group might have caused, while drawing attention to how past crisis of such dimension had been handled and resolved.
However, the source, which could not establish the membership strength of Melaye’s group of progressives, denied that any zonal caucus met to throw support for Bankole, saying he could give several names to contact just to establish that caucus meeting was held in the Speaker’s support.
He said what brought about the current crisis in the House was members’ insistence that they needed to know how capital votes belonging to the House was being expended.
“We are not saying we want to share capital vote, have you seen where they share capital vote before? If you share capital vote, you will go to jail. What we are saying is that we want to know how our capital vote is being spent, we want to track it properly now,” a source said.
He said members had not paid much attention to the way the capital budget of the House was being expended in the past.
Another member, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, predicted that Honourable Melaye’s group would fail again in its plot to remove Speaker Bankole except the EFCC intervene decisively in its investigation and possible prosecution of those alleged to be involved in the financial crime.
It has been gathered that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is set to probe the rumblings within the House of Representatives with a view to nipping the breakdown of confidence among members in the bud.
Against this background, the party’s National Secretariat may, any moment from next week, invite members of The Progressives for talks on the allegations they levelled against the Speaker as part of its drive towards probing the crux of problem in the House.
A national officer of the party told Saturday Tribune that the main task before the new national chairman of the party, Chief Okwezilieze Nwodo, would be to tackle the challenges currently posed to the party by addressing the House of Representatives’ issue.
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