Crisis seem to be brewing in the House of Representatives over the sharing of an alleged $15million largesse from the executive arm of government.
OsunDaily News gathered from Leadership that members of the house have accused the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila of sabotaging his colleague lawmakers in the distribution of the said $15million largesse.
It was learnt that the alleged crisis was the reason Gbajabiamila postponed resumption of plenary which was already slated for Tuesday.
According to sources in the house, the period of postponement was to be used to pacify the aggrieved members of the house over the unfair distribution of the money.
Recall that the clerk of the House, Yahaya Danzaria, in a statement on Monday had said, “This is to inform all Hon Members and the general public that the House of Representatives will not resume plenary on Tuesday 16th May, 2023 as earlier announced. The next adjourned date will be Wednesday 17th May, 2023 at 11:00am. Please disregard earlier notice and date; it was made in error. All inconveniences are highly regretted.”
It would be recalled that the House had in January authorised the president to borrow a fresh N1 trillion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to fund the 2022 supplementary budget.
While the House approved the restructuring of the N1 trillion for the Ways And Means WMAs, the lawmakers dropped the request for N22,719,703,774,306.90 from the CBN.
The Ways and Means provision allows the government to borrow from the apex bank when in need of short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government expected cash receipts of fiscal deficits.
However, it was learnt that after several negotiations with members of the concerned committees of the House and other critical stakeholders, Gbajabiamila secured the commitment of the House to pass the request on Thursday, 4th May.
Meanwhile, the $15milion largesse was allegedly negotiated for by Gbajabiamila but he apparently kept it away from his colleagues until last week when lawmakers got wind of the funds and accused him directly.
It was further gathered that the speaker after the confrontations had immediately ordered disbursement of $10, 000 to each lawmaker, amounting to $3.6 million, as their own share of the largesse, and adjourned plenary, remaining a little over $11 million.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one of the lawmakers who spoke with Leadership said it was not the first the Speaker was sabotaging his colleagues and this time around, several lawmakers are aggrieved about the issue.
The lawmaker said “You can see that he didn’t allow the plenary to reconvene as planned. He knows that there is a crisis and he doesn’t want the deputy speaker to preside over a plenary with the situation on ground. How can only one person even take more money than the entire 360 members and call himself a leader. He is too greedy .”
Another member alleged that short-changing lawmakers had been Gbajabiamila’s stock in trade and that the speaker already bit more than he could chew.
He submitted that “Let me tell you, this is not the first time. The executive released about N10bn for members of the House ahead of the elections; we only got $10, 000 each. Members are asking, what did Femi do with the balance? A similar amount was approved for the Senate and each Senator received about $40, 000,”
The lawmaker advanced that lawmakers who could not physically collect their own share were asked to send names and photos of their trusted aides to the staff in Gbajabiamila’s office as authorization for pick-up.
A senior legislative aide (SLA) who collected on behalf of his principal confirmed the information saying “Your principal would have to send your name and photo to the speakers’ SA via WhatsApp and you will pick-up the money with your National Assembly ID card.”
Pertaining to this current transaction, a returning lawmaker from the North Central confirmed to our correspondent that the money was shared and he got his own $10, 000 share.
When pointedly asked if it was for passing the N22.7 trillion, the ranking lawmaker said, “That is what they said, it is true, I have collected my own.”
Contrary to this, another lawmaker representing Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency of Benue State, Benjamin Mzondu, however, denied knowledge of distribution of the largesse.
Mzomdu disclosed that “I am not aware of this, I am hearing it from you for the first time. I am a lawmaker and I didn’t get any money.”
Even after he was challenged, he insist he didn’t know anything about the sharing of the money and he has not gotten his share.
Meanwhile, all efforts to reach the office of the Speaker have proved abortive at the time of filling this report.
