Saraki, Dogara Others May Face Impeachment As NGO Releases Details Of Alleged N630million Fraud
A group the Citizens Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN) has asked members of the National Assembly to immediately kick start the process of removing from office the Senate President; Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives; Yusuf Lasun over the allegation of criminal diversion of N630 million in the already trending rent scam.
The organisation while addressing a press conference Wednesday in Abuja said failure to do that simply means “all our elected legislators are stooges who have no say in law making, and have no right to be in the national assembly and rather should all be recalled by their constituencies.” It also asked for an immediate refund of the money by these principal officers, and subsequently called on the Nigerian Police and all relevant agencies to wade into the situation and ensure that justice is served.
“Let it be known that, should members of the National Assembly remain docile and fail to take appropriate action against these Principal Officers, CATBAN will turn the National Assembly Complex into a Citizens Square, where decisions for severe political sanctions against all elected federal lawmakers currently serving under this dispensation will be made,” it threatened.
Speaking on behalf of the organisation, Comrade Ibrahim Garba Wala picked holes in the explanations made by the spokesmen of the principal officers saying they were full of lies.
Recall that CATBAN had released a report on the January 30, 2017, in which among others, it the details of the alleged criminal activities of the Principal Officers with connivance of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) which served as a front under the guise of renting, renovation and furnishing of fictitious official residences.
In that report, CATBAN broke down the amount of monies ‘stolen’ by each individual categorically as follows:
SEN. BUKOLA SARAKI presented one of his properties acquired since he was Governor of Kwara State, located at No. 48 Lake Chad Crescent, Maitama District, Abuja and received the following sums:
Rent – N113,095,238.00 + N11,904,761.90 (VAT)
Furnishing – N67,857,142.86 + N7,142,857.14 (VAT)
Total – N199,999,999.90
HON. YAKUBU DOGARA presented one of his properties located at No.9 Persian Gulf Close, off Euphrates Street, Wuse 2, Abuja (recently constructed by A. A. Oil) and received the following sums:
Rent – N72,833,333.32 + N7,666,666. 68 (VAT)
Furnishing – N63,146,500.00 + N6,647,000.00 (VAT)
Total – N150,293,500.00
SEN. IKE EKWEREMADU presented no residential property, yet received as follows
Rent – N90,476,190.76 + N9,525,809.24 (VAT)
Furnishing – N45,084,285.72 + N4,745,714.28 (VAT)
Total – N149,832,000.00
HON. YUSUF LASUN also presented no residential property, yet received as follows:
Rent – N62,428,571.42 + N6,571,428.58 (VAT)
Furnishing – N55, 190,476.18 + N5,809,523.82 (VAT)
Total – N130,000,000.00
GRAND TOTAL OF PUBLIC FUNDS STOLEN – N630,125,499.90
On January31, 2017, Sen. Saraki through his media aide Yusuph Olaniyonu responded as follows:
“There is no truth to the claim by this group. In fact, during the preparation of the budget, the Senate President and Speaker directed the FCDA to remove the 10 billion Naira voted for the construction of their official residence to save cost. The current leadership of the National Assembly will not be part of any illegal payment to anybody”
Likewise Hon. Dogara through his media aide Turaki Hassan, responded as follows:
“Presiding officers of the National Assembly are entitled to official accommodation which is provided for by the FCDA as host of the National Assembly. The same is applicable to the President, Vice President and the Chief Justice of Nigeria because their offices were not covered by the monetization policy. Consequently, no National Assembly presiding officer receives any money from any other source for accommodation or rent.The FCDA is solely responsible for providing official accommodation for presiding officers of the National Assembly and how it goes about it is entirely its business and not that of any presiding officer. It’s callous, wicked and evil for any news medium to seek to perpetuate the mendacity that National Assembly Presiding officers collected money from FCDA without any form of evidence whatsoever…”
Responding to the statements given on behalf of the officers, CATBAN explained in this statement:
In view of these uncoordinated responses & deliberate misrepresentation of facts aimed at throwing this incident under the carpet, we have gathered here today to shed more light on these criminal activities and also prove to the media & Nigerians that what we have at the helm of affairs of our legislature are nothing but pathological liars & individuals who have no moral responsibility whatsoever in being at the helm of affairs of our legislature.
MONETIZATION POLICY DOES NOT EXEMPT PRINCIPAL OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
The monetization policy as stipulated in the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Act does not exempt the Principal Officers of the National Assembly. This is the singular reason why former Principal Officers like Sen. David Mark under his tenure and Hon. Aminu Tambuwal were allowed to own their residential accommodation provided by the Assembly. What the accused persons have put forward through their aides are sad unfortunate lies which demands utmost condemnation from Nigerian. That something is said over and over again does not make it the truth.
THE BUDGET OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY EXPLICITLY PROVIDES FOR THE MONETIZED ACCOMODATION OF PRINCIPAL OFFICERS, INCLUDING PROVISION OF GUEST HOUSES
The National Assembly is an independent arm of government that for a long time now has enjoyed autonomy. The 8th Assembly has since inception collected N150 billion and N120 billion as her annual budgets respectively, through First Line Charge. In this same budget, monetized provision of accommodation for Principal Officers are categorically stipulated & specified which the Senate President & Speaker collect with no context from anyone. Unfortunately, only the Senate President & The Speaker have access to the contents of that budget and have refused to make it open for even the members of both chambers to know, who are led like mules and have no idea what is contained in their budget that they readily approve nor even have the guts to demand it be made open for them to know. The reason is simple. As long as it remains shrouded in secrecy, these individuals can continually perpetrate their criminal activities. The Principal Officers of the National Assembly therefore have no excuse whatsoever to go asking for money from FCDA in the name of accommodation. What they have done is false representation & extortion, in connivance with individuals in the agency, all to enable collection and sharing of “free money”. We are challenging members of the National Assembly today to tell their principal officers to show them the details of their budget that they approved, and they will be shocked!
The reason that Saraki and Dogara removed N10 million voted for their official residence as a courtesy by the FCT administration is to enable them continually steal from the FCDA under the guise of house rent.
Contrary to the seeming humane posturing the response from Saraki’s aide tries to convey, CATBAN is aware that the leadership of the National Assembly deliberately refused to allow the N10billion meant for the completion of the construction of the houses of Principal Officers of National Assembly being handled by Julius Berger to go through the budget because of their ploy to exploit it to their criminal benefit. That contract was as a courtesy by the FCT Administration to provide official residence for any sitting officer of the legislature Instead they cut the allocation to N1 billion in the budget even when they know very well that it cannot in anyway advance the construction work. This is because they have seen the chance to continue to use the accommodation demand to FCDA as a conduit pipe to loot the treasury. The National Assembly has continued to spend millions of Naira on the rent accommodation and guest houses (too numerous to mention, both in Abuja & Lagos) for the Principal Officers from the budget of the National Assembly, and still go to the FCDA to collect money for same exercise. How can we as Nigerians continue to condone this wickedness?
FCDA paid a total of N630,125,499.90 to 3 companies presented by the accused & used as fronts to siphon money under the guise of rent
CATBAN wishes to place on records, the following details to buttress our earlier report that N630,125,499.90 was paid by FCDA to these individuals through proxies & fronts which they claimed were agents & property owners for the rent fraud. The details will enable Nigerians understand how these fraud was expertly schemed and executed with the aim of working to ensure plausible deniability by the principal beneficiaries. This is also to put to shame the response by the Senate President & The Speaker that they are not parties to any illegal payments:
GOGETIT INVESTMENT LIMITED:
Account Number: 1013452206
Bank: Zenith Bank
Account Signatory: Orkuma Hembe
(Orkuma Hembe is brother to Hon. Herman Hembe, Chairman of the Federal Capital Territory Committee of the House of Representatives)
LEGENDARK CONSULT LIMITED
Account Numbers: 0212119991, 0216710224
Bank: Guaranty Trust Bank
Account Signatory: Akpoti Felix Otaru
(Felix Akpoti is brother to Natasha Akpoti, and they own Builders Hub )
PITCH GLOBAL SERVICES
Accounts: Domiciled in First Bank & Skye Bank
Account Signatory: Harrison Onyekachi Ogu
We have in our possession all the financial records for the transactions, including how the monies were paid into the account, and have made them available to the security agencies for immediate action to ensure everyone involved in this scam is apprehended and made to face justice.
