Mr Mudashiru Obasa, Speaker, Lagos House of Assembly, on Saturday appeared before state assembly panel of enquiry on the corruption allegations leveled against him by an online medium.
Obasa 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.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 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 its discovered that the accounts registered with various names, are being used to siphon public funds and many other allegations against the speaker.
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.
“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.
Obasa, while explaining on 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.
“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.
Obasa also denied the 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.
Full Story: [GuardianNg]
