·Grills officials of 16 ministries
There are indications that the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may invite the Speaker of House
of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, his deputy, Hon. Yusuf Lasun,
Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, over the
allegations made against them by the former House Committee Chairman on
Appropriation, Dr. Jibrin Abdulmumin.
Abdulmumin, had among other
issues, accused the speaker, other principal officers, and some House
committee chairman of diverting N40 billion out of N100billion allocated
to constituency projects in the 2016 budget.
The former Chairman on Appropriation,
who was recently suspended for 180 sittings over his allegations against
his colleagues, said that constituency projects worth N40 billion were
shared among the principal officers without the approval of the House.
He also claimed that the speaker ignored
his complaint that the chairmen of 10 out of the 96 standing committees
of the House inserted 2,000 projects worth about N284 billion into the
budget, among others.
He further alleged that his refusal to
accept a request to insert N30 billion into the 2016 budget caused the
rift between him and the leadership of the House.
A senior operative of the EFCC told
THISDAY in Abuja yesterday that the anti-graft agency was currently
conducting a “discreet but thorough investigation” into the allegations
made by Abdulmumin, disclosing that the investigation had reached an
advanced stage.
“Our senior operatives involved in the
investigation have grilled officials of 16 federal ministries in
connection with the on-going probe into the allegations contained in a
petition written to the commission by Abdulmumin, the source who spoke
with THISDAY in confidence stated.
“Our operatives have gathered some
evidence on some of the issues raised in the petition. The commission
would soon send invitation letters to some of the members listed in the
petition to our commission,” he said.
The source added that the investigation
into the petition was “progressing smoothly”, saying that the
investigation was being handled on a ministry-by-ministry basis and was
going on well.
“Very soon, we will get to a point where
those who have any case to answer would be summoned to make
clarifications where necessary. In this fight against corruption, we
believe nobody is above the law,” the source said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment