Aides to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, will today appear before the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) over their involvement in the 5.2 billion naira rural electrification scandal.
The aides include the senior special assistant on communications to the speaker, Kayode Odunaro.
A source within the commission informed NEXT that the aides are expected to testify on their roles in the nominations of companies that executed the rural electrification project across the country.
Ndidi Elumelu, the former chairman of the House of Representatives committee on power, and Nicholas Ugbane, the chairman of the Senate committee on power, are among those already facing prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the matter.
The EFCC had concluded its investigations, which exonerated the speaker and charged Mr. Elumelu, Mr. Ugbane, and others for their involvement in the scandal.
As earlier reported by NEXT however, ongoing investigations by the ICPC indicate that Mr. Bankole may be involved in the scandal.
When contacted, Folu Olamiti, the media consultant to the ICPC, confirmed the expected appearance of the aides.
“Yes, some of the speaker’s aides will appear before us tomorrow (today),” Mr. Olamiti stated, while refusing to comment further on the issue.
Mr. Odunaro told NEXT he was ready to appear before the commission, although he had “not received any (invitation) letter from the ICPC.” He explained that he had earlier written a petition to the commission through the speaker’s chief security officer.
“There was a time I wrote a petition to the ICPC on a plot to rope in the speaker. There was a serious plot to nail the speaker, which involved some cheques of UBA,” Mr. Odunaro said.
The UBA cheques
Though Mr. Odunaro did not elaborate on the UBA cheques, findings by NEXT show that these were the cheques issued by Mr. Elumelu to companies who had completed their own part of the electrification project.
“The cheques were meant for the companies. But there was a woman who was a go between, between the speaker and Elumelu. Elumelu told us that the speaker recommended the woman as a middle-man so as to limit his involvement. The woman was supposed to collect the cheques from Elumelu, take them to UBA, and transfer the agreed sum to the companies,” a source in the ICPC told NEXT.
The source, who declined to mention the name of the woman, stated that “the woman is now on the run; we understand she escaped out of the country. We are searching for her and once we get her, the whole truth about the speaker’s involvement in the scandal will be clear. Elumelu also told us that it was Bankole that gave him the names of the companies that got the contract, though Bankole denied that.”
Mr. Elumelu and some other members of his committee; Mr.Ugbane; the permanent secretary in the ministry of power, Abdulahi Aliyu; and the managing director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Samuel Ibi Gekpe; are all facing trial by the EFCC for their involvement in the scandal.
The legislators are alleged to have influenced the officials of the Rural Electrification Agency to smuggle contracts that were not approved by the presidency into their operations.
In all, 21 companies believed to be associated with members of the House of Representatives, got the controversial contracts.
NEXT learnt that the money, which was meant to be paid to the companies that successfully completed their own electrification projects, is still with the UBA, even though the companies have completed the projects.
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