Nigeria Content Online

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.