…Panel’s Findings On Graft Allegations Will be a Whitewash

…Committee Composed of Speaker’s Loyalists

…Allegations Are Untrue, Handiwork of Enemies…Speaker

The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr Mudashiru Obasa has been accused of setting up a panel that appears destined to exonerate him from raging allegations of graft.

In a letter addressed to the lawmakers through the Clerk of the House, foremost anti-corruption group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA Resource Centre)  said Mr Obasa, whose second term has been marred in a string of corruption charges is using the House Investigation Committee as a smokescreen to unchain himself.

Panel Consists of Cronies

The outcome of the panel is predictable: Obasa will be cleared by his friends fronting as investigators.

“The panel set up by the Lagos State House of Assembly is made up cronies of the Speaker. There is no way justice will be delivered to the people of Lagos whose resources Obasa was said to have pillaged,” the statement signed by HEDA Chairman, Mr Olanrewaju Suraju stated

The HEDA Chairman said his group which was invited to substantiate the corruption allegations got the invitation through email few hours to the sitting of the Committee and at a time when the committee was already dramatising the invitation in social and mainstream media.

HEDA said its petition to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) subsists and that the Speaker and its panel should not assume they can take over the work of the anti-graft institution.

In the letter tagged “Re-Ad-Hoc Committee on Investigation and Fact Findings on the allegations: Invitation to a meeting,” Suraju said the Committee was a decoy to pass clean bill on the embattled speaker.

HEDA stated “Considering the inherent fundamental flaws and procedural defects in the procedure, appointment of the committee, process of invitation and the shenanigans of the committee, we have decided that the committee does not deserve a response from our organisation.”

The group said the invitation was deliberately served without any genuine intent of receiving any input from the public.

“Your committee, via our official email address sent an invitation to our organisation at 6.07pm on Wednesday, at a time when offices had closed, and requested our appearance before a committee at 10.00am the following day. A sincere, impartial and independent committee will never send an invitation to an individual and organisation for an appearance at the sitting of the committee with less than 24 hours notice, as was the case in this circumstance,” Suraju stated.

Allegations Are Not Against House

He said it is pathetic to see the Lagos House of Assembly equate the Speaker of the Assembly to the institution, adding that the personification of the House is worrisome.

Suraju said the name of the committee is titled “AD-HOC COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATION AND FACT FINDINGS ON THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST THE HOUSE”, as contained in the letter adding that the allegations read in the papers and social media were against the Speaker, Honourable Obasa, and not the House.

“Under the principle of fair process, the House is unfit to be a judge in its own case by constituting a committee to investigate allegations of crime against it. The Committee was impatient in its haste to arrive at a predetermined conclusion. Hence, its alleged turned down of its invitation to the invited Civil Society Organisations was already communicated through a press address to the media less than one hour after the expected “appearance” of the invitees”

HEDA said a credible and responsive government institution will not allow the subject of allegations to preside over the process of his investigation.

The group said “The Speaker cannot constitute a committee of his loyalists, many of whom have defended him on these allegations through the vote of confidence passed on him and expect any iota of seriousness or credibility attached to the committee or its recommendations. This simply goes without saying.

Allegations Are Criminal in Nature

HEDA said it was wrong for the House to invite the group to a meeting when in actual fact no petition was submitted to the Assembly by our organisation in the first place.

“The allegations against the Speaker are criminal in nature and completely outside the parliamentary power of the Assembly. We have directed these petitions to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for their actions. It would be honourable for the Assembly to allow these agencies discharge their statutory responsibilities of investigating this matter.”

HEDA said the agenda of the Committee and the Assembly is to create a semblance of clean bill of health for the Speaker with the hope of deceiving the public and stampeding the law enforcement agencies.

“This is clearly manifested in the hideous appearances and submission of bank officials before the panel.

Though, news reports suggest that the committee has already concluded its ‘sittings’ and is expected to pronounce its ‘findings’ of “Not Guilty” next week, it is our hope that the Committee and the House will have the courage to give account of the utilisation of public fund to the anti graft agencies that are investigating the allegations of grave corruption and abuse of office committed by the Speaker.

Charges Are Untrue

Mr Obasa who on Saturday appeared before the Assembly panel of enquiry on the corruption allegations levelled against him by an online medium, told the panel that the allegations were untrue and that it was the handiwork of his enemies.

The speaker appeared before the nine-man Fact Finding Panel of the House headed by Mr Victor Akande (Ojo Constituency I) at the House chamber.

An online medium had reported on May 23 that at least 64 bank accounts have been discovered and linked to the Bank Verification Number of the Speaker.

The online medium said that it discovered that the accounts registered with various names, are being used to siphon public funds and many other allegations against the Speaker.

Responding to questions from members of the Committee, Obasa said that all the allegations made by the online medium in the reports were unfounded.

The Speaker explained that the vehicles bought for the members of the House and other expenses made by the House were done with the approval of the House and that of the Fund Management Committee (FMU) of the House headed by him.

“We bought land cruisers for Principal Officers of the House. The cars we bought for them are always higher than those of other members and we followed the due process in the purchase.

“We went through the Public Procurement Agency (PPA) and others and the vehicles were distributed appropriately.

“It was agreed at the parliamentary meetings on about four occasions and the Clerk of the House, Mr Azeez Sanni, is the Secretary.

“Also, it is not true that my wife collects N10 million monthly from the House. Anyone who says she does should come with proofs and evidences.

Approval Limit is N100 Million

“My approval limit as the Speaker is N100 million and anything above that would have to be approved by the Fund Management Committee.

Obasa also debunked an allegation that N258 million was spent for the printing of invitation cards for the inauguration of the 9th Assembly.

He said that the whole event cost N61 million and that N1.1 million was spent on printing of the invitation cards.

“It is not possible to spend N258 million to print invitation cards. We are not involved in such a frivolous expenditure,” he said.

N80 Million Estacode for Dubai Training

Obasa, while explaining the expenditure of N80 million as estacode for the training of women in Dubai, said that wives of the 20 lawmakers attended the event and that he was there to declare the event open.

“We gave N4 million to each of the participants for air ticket, hotels, feedings and local travel.

“Air ticket to Dubai alone is about N2 million. Some of these allegations were raised for a crusade to get the Speaker out of office.

“The House of Assembly is above common standard of excellence and we have to train people, and this comes with a cost. Learning is not cheap and I have never collected N80 million for estacode at a go before,” he said.

The Speaker, while defending the purchase of eight Hiace buses for committee works in the Assembly, said it was discovered that the House was spending a lot of money to repair vehicles.

“That was why the House decided to buy the buses, the buses were there for everybody to see with documents to defend the purchases,” he said.

US Conference

Obasa also denied allegation that he spent N53 million for a trip to the United States of America with his mistress.

“We were invited by the Consular General for a programme in the United States. Later, the programme was postponed, but I had gone ahead.

“I had to return home and I told others not to bother to come until the new dates,” the Speaker said.

Obasa, however, told the committee that it was not possible for him to spend N17 million for cleaning of his guest house, being one of the allegations made by the online medium.

“They only remove documents and fly them around to please themselves. All our payments go through certain procedures.

“The expenditure had been there before I became the Speaker. There was no way I could have spent such amount on cleaning my guest house.

“On the issue of awarding contracts to companies belonging to me, they should come and show evidence of where I awarded contracts to myself,” he told the panel.

N350 Million Spent on Speakers’ Conference

On the report that he tricked former Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode, to spend N350 million for hosting a meeting of Conference of Speakers, Obasa, told the committee that this was not possible.

The Speaker said such situation was not possible since Ambode was an accountant, who rose to be the Chief Accountant of the State.

“There was no way I could have tricked Ambode to release such money, we had a meeting of the Conference of Speakers, who came with three members each and we had sub-committees who were given two million naira each.

“We paid for the tickets of each Speaker, we paid for their hotel accommodation, feeding and souvenirs. We also provided local transportation for them.

“All these allegations are deliberate actions of my enemies to achieve their aims that they could not achieve in the House to remove me as the Speaker of the House, which was why they came up with such reports,” he said.

The Speaker denied spending N60 million for social influences.

Obasa said he did not know the companies they were talking about.

“The BVN they were flying about was not correct.

“Whatever I have done as a Speaker, all the approvals I gave as Speaker were given based on collective approval of the members of the House,” he said.

The Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, who also appeared before the panel denied attending meeting in Dubai as against the report of online medium.

Also speaking, Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Strategy, Mr Tunde Braimoh, said he didn’t know how much was spent on the hosting of Conference of Speakers, since different people handled different aspects of the event.

“We provided hospitality for the few the people that came. The event involved other things, there were catering and others that were given to other people to handle.

N47.5 Million Spent on Social Media Influencers

“It is most uncharitable to say we spent N47.5 million for social media influencers. We spend money on publicity and public relations.

“We have programmes that we pay for, on TVC and LTV 8. We have a magazine that we produce and we print 40,000 copies quarterly and distribute to schools and other places and we pay for the content, design and production,” he said.

The Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni, also defended the estacode for the trip to the United States, saying that it followed the standard procedure.

Sanni said the programme was budgeted for under conferences and seminars.

The clerk, however, agreed that some documents might have been released to the online medium through some disgruntled staffers of the House.

“We have been taking steps on that and we have transferred some members of staff.

“The files go through many tables and there is no doubt that some devilish staffers take pictures of some of these documents and send to these people.

“The staff have taken oaths and this attracts dismissal. Unofficial disclosure of information attracts dismissal in the civil service,” he stated.

Bank Verification Number (BVN)

Two officials of Zenith Bank; Mr John Olorundare, chief compliance officer, Mr John Olorundare, zonal head of Alausa and Mr Sanni Idowu Awe, also appeared before the panel.

The bank officials stated that an individual could only have one Bank Verification Number (BVN).

They confirmed that different account names could not be used for one BVN and that Obasa had only six accounts with Zenith Bank.

According to them, only two of the accounts are operational; one savings and current, while the rest are dormant.

Present at the meeting were other members of the committee which include: Mr Yinka Ogundimu (Agege II), Mr Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti Osa II), Mr Lukmon Olumoh (Ajeromi Ifelodun I) and Mr Ajani Owolabi (Lagos Mainland I).

Others are Mrs Mojisola Alli-Macaulay (Amuwo Odofin I), Mr Rotimi Olowo (Shomolu I) and Mr Akeem Shokunle (Oshodi/Isolo I)