By Akinwale Kasali
The immediate Past Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, is in trouble. The Lagos State House of Assembly is waving a warrant of arrest at him.
The House had Instituted a 16-man committee to investigate the former Governor over the purchase of 820-mass transit Bus at about N47 billion. The purchase was allegedly not approved by the House of Assembly. The House alleges lack of due process and transparency.
Sadly for him, a couple of Commissioners under him indicted him, alleging he ran a one-man show.
Invited to defend himself before the committee on two occasions, he shunned the invitation, prompting the Committee Chairman, Hon. Fatai Mojeed, to call for a bench warrant arrest of the former Governor.
Also failing to appear before the committee were the former Commissioner for Finance and the Commissioner of Special Duties, Akinyemi Ashade and Seye Oladejo.
But the duo wrote a letter to the committee conveying information about their absenteeism. They are outside the country, they said.
Further indicting Ambode, the former Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Olusegun Banjo, said the purchase of the transit buses was neither channeled through his Ministry, nor was he aware that such amount of money was to be spent on it. Ambode transacted the business without informing him, he told the Committee.
“I became Commissioner in February 2018, and I followed the system I met on ground, which was responsible for the shady transactions on the buses that were procured.
“The way the Ministry was structured did not allow us to function well. We didn’t have a running system. As a Commissioner, I cannot approve One Naira. All the MDAs approached governor Ambode directly. A lot of things were done under the Ambode Administration without the knowledge of the Commissioners, which showed lack of transparency”.
Banjo stressed that there was no provision for the purchase of the 820 buses in the 2018/2019 budgets, and that no Vote of Charge, VOC, was issued from his office for purchase.
As regards unbudgeted funds, he claimed he was not aware of what happened to them because there was no synergy between his Ministry and the Ministry of Finance. There was also no information on how it was to be spent or used as it was determined by Governor Ambode.
The Accountant-General of the State, Shukrat Umar, also indicted Ambode saying that though the purchase of the Buses was approved by the State Executive Council, she wasn’t aware whether the Paris Refund Club issues were discussed, because it was from there Ambode took the money for the purchase of the buses.
She added that Imota Rice Mill, Light Up Lagos Project, Procurement Lagos State Emergency Agency, LASEMA, Rapid Response Squad, RRS, equipments and engagement of Consultants were all done under shady circumstances.
The former Commissioners for Agriculture and Energy, Toyin Suarau and Wale Oluwo said many projects, including the Oshodi Interchange, were not captured in the budget, and were carried out under shady circumstances.
Following this disclosure by Banjo and other Commissioners, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa said that Ambode should be invited publicly via pages of the Newspapers , and if he failed to honour the invitation, then the next option would be to arrest him.
