House of Representatives says response by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over contracts allegedly awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission to members of the National Assembly has absolved the lawmakers.
The House said Akpabio’s response had cleared lawmakers, who were earlier accused of being beneficiaries by the minister and NDDC management.
Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, said in a statement on Tuesday that Akpabio had failed to prove his allegations against the lawmakers.
The lawmakers’ statement was titled, ‘Sen Akpabio’s Personal Letter to the Speaker Exonerates the 9th House But Fails Meet the Ultimatum, the Minister is Invited to the Publish List as Instructed.’
The lawmakers had last Thursday resolved to sue the minister for alleged perjury and defamation of the parliament.
Akpabio had on Monday last week, during an investigative hearing on the alleged illegal spending and mismanagement of funds, alleged that members of the National Assembly were awarded 60 per cent of contracts from the commission.
Gbajabiamila had on Tuesday, with the leave of the House, asked Akpabio to provide details of the contracts within 48 hours.
During the opening of plenary last Thursday, Gbajabiamila had said he had asked the Clerk to the House, Patrick Giwa, to meet their lawyers on the legal action to be taken against Akpabio.
But the minister in his response, which later arrived in the House, denied that the lawmakers got 60 per cent of NDDC contracts, but listed some serving and former members of the National Assembly against some contracts awarded by the commission.
In the House’s reaction, its spokesperson described the Akpabio’s allegations as “a coordinated and calculated attempt to distract Nigerians from the ongoing investigation.”
He said the minister, “in his usual diversionary tactics,” chose to send “an irrelevant eight-paragraph private letter to the Speaker regarding projects of 2018, which pre-date the 9th House and had little to do with the bogus claims he made.
“The House, therefore, reiterates that the minister was given an ultimatum to publish names and not to write a personal letter to the Speaker. The honourable minister is, hereby, cautioned to desist from spinning tales and is invited to go public as instructed.
“Nevertheless, it will interest Nigerians to know that Paragraph 3 of the minister’s letter fully exonerated the 9th Assembly. Also, in Paragraph 7, the minister completely withdrew his previous statement about 60 per cent of the NDDC projects being awarded to members of the 9th Assembly.
“It is also instructive for Nigerians to note that the total number of projects in the 2019 NDDC budget was 5,959, out of which 5,416 projects were rolled over from 2018, which the 9th Assembly obviously had no influence or control over. Therefore, unable to prove his claims, the minister presented an ineffectual spreadsheet of only 266 projects, out of which about 20 projects were attracted by past members of the National Assembly as constituency projects, not as contractors, but in furtherance of their representative mandate.”