Written by Idowu Samuel Thursday, 10 June 2010
THE crisis of confidence among members of the House of Representatives, which began four weeks ago, came to a head on Wednesday as members issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Speaker, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, to resign on alleged phenomenal corruption.
The members accused Bankole of bad leadership, ineptitude, high-handedness, and disrespect for House rules and the cause of disaffection between the House and the Senate on crucial national matters.
Numbering 10, the members, who addressed the media on their grievances against the Speaker, said they were in possession of “unassailable documentary evidences” detailing infractions allegedly committed by Bankole and would not hesitate to present such before the anti-corruption agencies, the presidency and security agencies at the end of the seven-day ultimatum.
The anti Bankole members said they had exhumed documents on the alleged high level of corruption allegedly perpetrated by the leadership of the House and would immediately file petitions on it before President Goodluck Jonathan, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC); State Security Service (SSS); police and other security agencies if he failed to resign.
Honourable Dino Melaye, who read an address to the media was accompanied by top anti-Bankole members, including Honourable Independence Ogunewe, Honourable West Idahosa, Honourable Godwin Ndudi Elumelu, Honourable Solomon Awhinawi, Honourable Diaka Greg, Honourable Adamu Anan, Honourable Darlington Okereke and Honourable Bitrus Kase.
Melaye said since the inauguration of the House of Representatives in June 1999, members had not witnessed the level of corruption which he alleged had been perpetrated under Bankole's leadership, adding that the consequences had manifested in the loss of image by the House.
He said the House, presided over by Salisu Buhari, Ghali Umar Na'Abba, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari and Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, towered in integrity compared with the era of bad leadership which he said Bankole had been foisting on members, by his style of leadership.
He said members resolved to push Bankole out of office for six main reasons, ranging from monumental acts of corruption, the rift between the House and the Senate, high-handedness, frequent breach of the rules of the House, sweeping and unsubstantiated statements capable of causing disaffection among the three arms of government.
Melaye reflected on a similar crisis which swept former Speaker Etteh away from office, noting that the alleged offences committed by Etteh was nothing compared with what Bankole had been accused of since he became speaker.
He said he could vouch for the documents which he said members were set to present against Bankole as most genuine, as he stressed that the leadership might characteristically refer to the documents as fake, a reason he said members did their homework well this time in obtaining the documents from original sources.
In his remarks, Idahosa, one of the oldest members in the House, described the current leadership in the House as a misfortune to members, stressing, "Never in the history of this legislative House had we such a legislative tyrant as a leader.”
Idahosa said the House had been passive all along against alleged cases of corruption against the leadership because members had been cowed and castrated and so could not air their disaffections with the style of leadership in the House. He said “we will rather die than not to speak the truth.”
Idahosa said many members of the House were aware that the issue of N2.3 billion car scam had been laid before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and expressed surprise why the commission appeared to have swept the case under the floor.
“There can never be no other case of corruption in the House than that of the car scam. We are prepared to release the shameful details of corruption to the world.
“What did Etteh do that she was removed from office? She only got anticipatory approval for a contract on house renovation and we forced her to throw in the towel. What did the speaker in the United Kingdom Parliament do? It was just a marginal increase in the allowances of members and he resigned from office,” he said.
Idahosa added that members would not rest until Bankole was removed from office, adding that “we have evidence 10 times greater than what caused Etteh’s exit from the speakership position to ask Bankole to go.”
The House leadership had earlier called on security agencies to investigate the activities of anti-Bankole members which, it said, were inimical to the progress of the House, particularly a threat credited to a member, Honourable Dino Melaye, who had called for the resignation of Bankole.
Reacting, Bankole, reacting through the chairman, House Committee on Media, Honourable Eseme Eyiboh, said those calling for his resignation were self-styled progressives, describing the allegations against him as false.
Eyiboh, in the statement, said “the attention of the leadership of the House of Representatives has been drawn to the activities of some self-styled progressives in the House who misled the perceptive public with their proverbial ‘ostrich display’ of selfish tendencies in the guise of public interest.
“The present leadership is a creature and creation of the generality of the House and the prevalent synergy culminating in the successful constitution review vindicates the acceptability of the leadership.
“The public should not be deceived as most of these persons lost out of the recent committee reshufflement or were turned down on their blackmail to get 'juicy' committees from the leadership.
“Once more, I wish to alert the relevant security agencies to this destabi-lisation plot of an arm of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We want to state that the various allegations being parroted are false, with some of them based on forgery of government documents.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment