Speaker of the Nigeria’s House of Representatives Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, weeks after he and Senate President Ahmed Lawan continued to keep silence over Chief Edwin Clerk’s letter seriously alleging their members on the corruption bedeviling the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has finally spoken following an outburst by Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio, exposing his members as contractors of the agency.
It will be recalled Chief Clerk had asked leadership of the National Assembly to purge themselves of their corrupt members alleged to have been hugely involved in the corrupt activities against the 19-year old interventionist agency by stopping them from instituting a probe of corruption in the NDDC of which they are an interested party, adding that they cannot be judge in their own case.
One of the accused lawmakers was chairman of the House NDDC investigative panel until the Acting Managing Director, Professor Kemebrakuma Pondei walked out on it last Thursday July 16, 2020 saying he would not speak to a probe panel headed by lawmaker, who hijacked NDDC projects being investigated.
It suggests that the Speaker did not act on warnings ahead of time, even as he and Lawan were told to allow President Muhammadu Buhari’s Forensic Audit for clean-up of the agency to conclude before they take any further steps.
Surprisingly, watchers of NDDC events said, the first time Gbajabiamila would speak on the allegations, was to open fire and draw a battleline between him and Minister Akpabio giving him 48 hours ultimatum to publish the names of NASS members, who he claimed are contractors of NDDC, and give details of the contracts or that his House would invoke the full wrath of the law to make him do so.
The Speaker issued the ultimatum during plenary on Tuesday, a day after the minister claimed at a House public hearing that most of the contracts awarded by the NDDC were awarded to lawmakers.
During a testy appearance before the House Committee on NDDC on Monday, Senator Akpabio claimed that the lawmakers were “the greatest beneficiaries” of NDDC contracts.
Asked how the lawmakers benefitted, he said, “I just told you that we have records to show that most of the contracts in the NDDC are given out to members of the National Assembly”.
The Speaker, who accused Senator Akpabio of pulling the oldest trick in the book with the claims, believes the he owes the country to publish the names in the interest of transparency.
On Monday, Mr Gbajabiamila had to intervene in the sitting of the committee after the Acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Daniel Pondei, fainted while being grilled about activities of the commission.
He had called for calm and assured all those invited to appear before the committee that the invites were in the interest of the country and not targetted at anyone.
Stressing that it was a fact-finding mission, the Speaker wished Pondei quick recovery and urged the committee to proceed quickly and wrap up its investigations, stressing that Pondei had already submitted documents to them.
While issuing an ultimatum to Senator Akpabio about his claims, Mr Gbajabiamila, however, said the committee had the right to invite Pondei again should it feel the need to do so.
