Nigeria Content Online

The
Lagos State House of Assembly has again decided to revisit and
investigate the allegations of corruption and constitutional violations
levelled against the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola.

The resolution was
made after the lawmakers deliberated on the petition submitted
yesterday by the renowned True Face of Lagos group.

The petition, dated
March 30 and signed by the group’s chairman, Adesina Adebayo, contained
many of the previously published allegations plus a few new ones.

Basis for allegations

The group, in the
petition, stated that a high level of accountability was expected from
the state government because many Lagosians have lost their means of
livelihood through “massive displacement by the present government”
besides the high compliance of residents with the tax system of the
State.

“Lagosians took all
these in their stride as our own contributions to the advancement of
our beloved centre of excellence,” the petition stated. It also said
that Fashola’s administration has spent, as budgetary allocations,
about N1.1 trillion since inception, an amount that surpassed the
entire budgetary allocations of the state from 1992 to 2007, by 30 per
cent.

“So, there is the
need to question some of the ways the governor has been expending tax
money, which in our opinion reflects financial recklessness,
mismanagement, gross constitutional violations, and abuse of office,”
the petition stated.

To substantiate the
allegation that an up-front payment of 70 per cent is always paid to
contractors, the group attached a list of contracts awarded between
January and August, 2009, by the Sstate’s ministry of health.

Two minutes of silence

After the Clerk of
the House read the petition during the House’s plenary session, two
minutes of silence was “observed” by the lawmakers, who seemed
dumbfounded that the petition resurfaced just 24 hours after a
committee set up to investigate the allegations was dissolved based on
a court ruling.

The silence was
finally broken by the majority leader, Kolawole Taiwo, who said, “I
don’t know what is in the mind of this True Face of Lagos but I can see
a determination in them. We are running towards election period and our
party’s determination to change Lagos is at stake. I don’t know how
Lagosians will feel about it but don’t you think we need to clean
ourselves of (the allegations)?” he asked.

Babatunde Adewale
(Apapa II) observed also the group’s resoluteness. “The court judgement
referred to them as faceless but they have appeared here today,” he
said. Also, the group now has a physical address as stated on its
petition as: “centre for the common man’s defence, behind 59 Ayanwale
Street, off Adeogun Street, Ojokoro, Lagos.”

Expectations and demands

Though none of the
lawmakers rejected the notion to investigate the allegations, some
expected the group to have a different approach.

“The group has been
silent since the court gave its verdict. I had expected that they will
criticise the judgement on the pages of the newspaper,” said Lola
Akande, the deputy chief whip of the House.

Ahmed Omisore
(Ifako-Ijaye II) also said the group should not only submit the
petition to the House but should present it to the governor also. “It
is important for them to take the petition to the governor rather than
use the House as a weapon,” he said.

However, Babatunde
Ogala (Ikeja I) said the House should not just accept the petition “as
is” but should invite the petitioner to prove the allegations.

“The group should be given an opportunity to come and prove their allegations in whatever manner they want to do it,” he said.

A sudden sickness

The Speaker of the
House, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, said he “became ill” while listening to the
Clerk’s reading of the petition letter, because of the scale of the
allegations.

Mr. Ikuforiji, who
was still visibly angry that the House’s effort to ensure transparency
in government was thwarted by the court, said, “We have investigated
allegations in this House before, based on newspaper publications, and
nobody complained.

“Akionla was alive when we investigated the Sunborn Yacht and he
never came up then. That we are not appealing the judgement does not
mean we agreed with it. I still disagree with the judgement,” he said.