EFCC Set To Probe Ogun Assembly, Speaker Reacts
The Ogun State House of Assembly will be investigated by the Economic and Money Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged financial theft.
The EFCC has written to the Assembly, requesting details on all budget appropriations and allocations made by the House from May 30, 2015, according to NewsDirect.
Olakunle Oluomo, the Speaker of the State Assembly, verified this on Ogun Radio’s Sunday Morning Live on FM on Sunday.
A listener questioned Oluomo if it was true that the EFCC was about to investigate the State Assembly.
The letter from the EFCC was received during the recent parliamentary employees’ strike, according to the Speaker.
Ogun Speaker Lawan says he is not ready to promote constitutional change to fix Nigeria’s challenges.
A member of the House of Assembly, he claims, may have filed a complaint with the anti-graft agency.
Despite the Speaker’s failure to identify the petitioner, DAILY POST recalls that the impeached Deputy Speaker, Hon. Dare Kadiri, once accused Oluomo of concealing the house’s financial records.
While accusing Oluomo of masterminding his removal, Kadiri said, “The Ogun State Assembly is not supposed to be a cult where you cannot ask for financial information of the house. How can I, at this level of mine, be in a place and I don’t know the financial report of the house? That’s what caused all this mess.’
Speaking on the letter from the EFCC on radio, Oluomo stated: “We have an issue in the house, somebody, a member of the house wrote a letter through his lawyer asking that we give him some information. And we told the lawyer that you’re not EFCC, you don’t have the right to ask that question. Our account is being audited.
“Probably the person is not satisfied and he wrote a letter to the EFCC. The EFCC wrote to us. Unfortunately, the letter came during the strike. But in my own stride, I just called the clerk of the house to reply to them that our staff are on strike and immediately they resume, we will give them all the information required.
“They are asking for information from 2015, I wasn’t at the helm of affairs from 2015 to 2019.
“There is one piece of information I want the people of Ogun State to know, Ogun State House of Assembly is not autonomous. We are given a specific amount of money, which is our salaries and allowances. We don’t take anything more than that. And it is the same amount which the house had been collecting since 2015 that we are still collecting now, the same with allowances. We don’t have the money to squander in the house.
“The money that is given to us is our allowance and running cost, which is already templates. This template I am talking about was there before I even thought of coming to the house. There is no way you will take one Kobo from one item to another.
“That is why when they said the EFCC wrote to us, I said good for us. Write them back that our staff are on strike and they are the custodian of all the documents.
“The moment they resume, they are working day and night. I have even approved money for them to buy stationeries and repair photocopiers to put everything together and send to EFCC. I challenge the EFCC to do their job thoroughly in the Ogun State House of Assembly. We don’t have anything to hide. We are not thieves,” Oluomo submitted.
