Following the inauguration of the National Assembly on June 13, 2023 and the subsequent declaration by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas that the 10th House would ensure and encourage an open parliament, his declaration resonated with Nigerians who thought the current Assembly would be a departure from the past.
However, the Green Chamber that has not really settled down for legislative activities has been plagued with various allegations of corruption. The level of corruption already oozing out of the 10th Assembly is a surprise to many to say the least.
Truth be told, this is not the first time that the members of the Green Chamber have been accused of corruption and arm twisting of agencies to have their own share of the ‘national cake’.
The famous N81 billion Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) probe easily comes to mind. The House launched the probe of the agency in 2020 with the aim of unravelling the rot in the agency.
Interestingly, during the probe, the then Minister of Niger Delta Minister, and the current President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio informed the committee that the lawmakers are the biggest beneficiaries of the corruption that has become the story of the NDDC.
“Who are even the greatest beneficiaries (of these contracts)? It’s you people nau,” Akpabio told the House Committee chaired by Hon. Thomas Ereyitomi.
“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, but you don’t know about it, but the two chairmen know,” Akpabio insisted.
“It’s okay..it’s okay. Honourable member..Honourable minister, it’s okay. That is okay…it’s okay…Honourable minister off (sic) your mic,” Ereyitomi kept pleading desperately.
The revelation by Akpabio led to the sudden death of the probe and nothing was ever heard of it again.
Nevertheless, since the inauguration of the 10th House and even before the constitution of Standing Committees, some ad hoc committees were constituted to carry out probes of some agencies of government.
A recent investigative report by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that a committee of the House charged with investigating job racketeering in government parastatals has been engaging in extortion of money from heads of federal ministries, departments and agencies, including those of tertiary institutions across the country.
The report added that committee, known for loudly posturing as an anti-corruption body, has ironically been intimidating heads of agencies into paying huge bribes to avoid being disgraced in public and indicted in a report to be issued after the ongoing hearings to which almost all the heads of the nation’s federal institutions have been summoned to appear.
The ad hoc committee of 39 lawmakers was constituted following a motion on 5 July by Oluwole Oke, a Peoples Democratic Party member representing the Obokun/Oriade federal constituency of Osun State, who urged the House to investigate the monumental graft surrounding personnel recruitment in government parastatals.
The report by the newspaper also accused Oke of corruption. Incidentally, that wasn’t the first time Oke would be accused of corruption, but there was no evidence to hold against him.
Similarly, there was a mild drama last Friday when a construction company, DC Engineering Ltd, accused another member of the House, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe and some officials of the Federal Ministry of Works of inflating the contract sum of ongoing project from N9.8 billion to N54.3 billion.
During the investigative hearing of the ad hoc committee investigating the failure of the contractor to complete the construction and rehabilitation of Ijebu-Igbo Ita Ibadan Road, the Executive Director of DC Engineering Ltd, Ade Adedeji, revealed that the 41 km road project was awarded to the company in 2018 at the sum of N9.8 billion.
He explained that the contract was supposed to be completed within two years but it took the Ministry of Works five years—2018 to 2023 before it was able to pay 15 percent mobilisation fund of N1.3 billion.
Moreso, the House of Ad hoc committee investigating the utilisation of ecological funds released to the National Great Green Wall from 2015 to date last Tuesday barred journalists from covering the hearing.
The committee had on Aug 31 accused the agency of spending N81. 2 billion to plant 21 million trees in 11 states. The States are: Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.
After the media trial of the agency orchestrated by the ad hoc committee, the committee decided to conduct the probe in secrecy in clear contradiction with the Speaker’s declaration of “Open NASS”.
The Clerk of the ad hoc committee, Mr. Edem Bassey said the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Dabo Haruna, directed that the investigative hearing was not for media coverage.
“The first sitting you covered, I wrote a letter to you, and to the best of my knowledge this Committee did not write any letter asking for another coverage. So that addresses the issue. You know how we work in this place, I am supposed to either communicate to you or the chairman. That has not been done and why it is not done, I was not briefed to do so,” Bassey had said.
While the outcome of the hearing has not been made known by the committee, the sitting has already ended abruptly like the NDDC probe.
While it is too early in the day to assess the 10th House, with the number of corruption allegations against members of various committees, Abbas might be leading the most corrupt Assembly at the end of the day if the committees are not put in check.