The House of Representatives on Friday suspended the former chairman of its ad hoc committee on the management of subsidy regime, Farouk Lawan, to allow for an unfettered investigation of his alleged receipt of $620,000 from an oil marketer, Femi Otedola.


The decision was taken at a special session convened by the House to deliberate on the raging bribery scandal.

Thunderous ovation marked the session.

The decision to suspend Lawan was based on the motion moved by Ishaka Bawa and seconded by Rafeeqat Onabamiro.

The matter was also referred to its Committee on Ethics and Privileges.

The House also asked the Management of the National Assembly and its Committee on Ethics and Privileges to investigate the committee’s Clerk, Boniface Emenalo, for his involvement in the scandal.

The session, which was marked by repeated thunderous ovation, was the second since the sixth legislature was convened on June 6, 2011.

The House also passed a vote of confidence in the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, based on a motion moved by Samson Osagie.

The lawmaker warned against a dangerous trend of using security agencies to intimidate elected members of the legislature in order to protect powerful people.
He said the recording of the alleged receipt of the bribe by security agencies was reminiscent of the Watergate scandal udner former United States President, Richard Nixon.

The legislators also mandated John Enoh to take over the leadership of the ad hoc committee and adopted a motion that two oil firms, Synopsis International and Zenon Petroleum and Gas (owned by Otedola) should account to anti-graft agencies for the sums of $51449977.7 and $232,975,385.13 respectively which they received as subsidy funds.

The House also directed its committees on anti-graft agencies to ensure the implementation of the recommendations in the report by the relevant agencies.

In a short speech, Tambuwal urged Nigerians to continue to support the House and vowed that it would not allow the scandal overshadow the report.

“”We shall never compromise our stand against corruption. May I also ask the executive to match words with action in the implementation of this report.
“”As members of the parliament, we enjoy no immunity and seek none,” he said.

The House dissolved into a Committee of the Whole at 11.58a.m chaired by deputy speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, and considered the motion for Synopsis and Zenon to be asked to account for the subsidy funds received by them.

After considering the report, it reverted to plenary at 12.09p.m and adopted the report.

Ihedioha said the implication of the resolution is that the House has asked the anti-graft agencies to investigate Synopsis and Zenon for collecting the said subsidy funds and failing to utilise them as required.

At 12.15p.m, Tsokwa moved the motion for the adoption of the votes and proceedings of the session and was seconded by Friday Itulah.

The motion was adopted and the House adjourned till Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 12.19p.m

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The World is Watching