The Presidency last Monday declared that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is an independent body which it has no control over. BOLA BADMUS examines the statement against the backdrop of claims by the commission on its report on the alleged N2.3 billion House of Representatives’ car scam.

The fracas that rocked the House of Representatives last week Tuesday which left in its trail broken arms and other injuries as well as shredded clothes, following exchange of blows by lawmakers,  have not stopped reverberating in the land and the ugly development has also not escaped the attention of the outside world.

The fracas was occasioned by the agitations of a certain group, The Progressives, led by Honourable Dino Melaye to force Speaker ‘Dimeji Bakole to resign his appointment over allegations that he and his team in the leadership mismanaged N9 billion meant for the 2009 capital budget of the House.

The group of 11 lawmakers led by Melaye had, for days before the resumption by members from their recess, gone to town with allegation of what Bankole and his team bought allegedly without the consent of larger members of the House, but at inflated costs, threatening fire and brimstones, even as it issued an ultimatum of seven days within which Speaker Bankole must resign, failure of which it would approach the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) with details of the alleged financial sleaze committed by Bankole.

Leader of the team, Melaye, later made good his promise a day to the resumption of the House as he went to the EFCC armed with the documents relating to the said allegation, which the leadership of the House had severally tagged as “forged,” urging the commission to probe Bankole.

It will be recalled that The Progressives, in their desperate attempt to nail Bankole, had also raised the issue of N2.3 billion car scam which rocked the House of Representatives  long ago, urging also that the anti- graft agency headed by Mrs. Farida Waziri should look into it and bring the Speaker and whoever was involved to book.

The majority members of the House did not waste time last Tuesday in bundling out Melaye and every member of his group that were sighted on the floor of the chamber, that was after they had been thoroughly beaten as a way of teaching them a bitter lesson on how to be “decorous” and not to operate outside the rules guiding the activities in the House where they are members. All of 11 members were later slammed a suspension order lasting the current session and which by interpretation means that the affected members, including Solomon Awhinawih, Austin Nwachukwu, Doris Uboh, Gbenga Onigbogi, Gbenga Oduwaye and Kayode Amusan, among others, will not return to the parliament unless miracle happens.

According to the House, what brought about the irritation was the fact that Melaye and his group went outside the normal procedure by externalising the problem through their call on the EFCC to investigate the alleged scam and bring the culprits to book. The other irritation cited by the House through its chairman, Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Eseme Eyibo, was that the affected lawmakers came into the chamber with objects that were foreign to the business of lawmaking, including whistle and fire extinguisher, which it alleged Honourable Nwachukwu used in breaking the arm of a colleague, Honourable Chinyere Igwe.

Although the House appears very calm now, following the ejection of the “recalcitrant” lawmakers both from the chamber and their offices nay the entire premises of the National Assembly, total peace may not have returned in reality. Just last Monday, the Presidency had cause to react to the alleged scandal as cited by The Progressives, particularly as it relates to the alleged N2.3 billion car scam. The Presidency, which perhaps might have been forced to react based on the challenge thrown at it by EFCC lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, denied that President Goodluck Jonathan had any EFCC report on his table, maintaining that there was no need for such. Keyamo had stated, in an interview he granted, that the said report on the car scam, over which he came to testify before the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges that investigated the matter, had been submitted by the EFCC and was on President Jonathan’s table for further directives, even as he tasked spokesperson to the president, Ima Niboro, to speak out. According to Jonathan, he had no such report on his table, declaring that he had no cause to interfere in the works of EFCC and other anti- graft agencies, including the ICPC, which he described as independent bodies.

Several reports in the media had in the past indicated that EFCC’s investigation into the alleged scam had been long concluded and that the said report, which was said to have indicted certain persons in the leadership position  in the House, had been submitted with the Presidency. According to some of the reports, late President Umaru Yar’Adua was said to have been in possession of the said EFCC’s report and was studying it.

But shortly after the death Yar’Adua, reports indicated that the legal unit of EFCC was working on the report, as a prelude to preparing charges against those that were found culpable in the purchase of 380 Peugeot 307 cars at alleged inflated price from Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) in 2008. Later, the EFCC chairman, Mrs. Waziri, was to be quoted at a press briefing to have said that the car scam report had been sent to the Presidency.

Now, that the Presidency had denied the claim made and reiterated by the EFCC over the said report, analysts could deduce that perhaps the said indicting report never existed, afterall, one of the persnalities, whose name had allegedly been mentioned as one of those said to have been indicted in EFCC report, had on one occasion, said he could not comment  on a report he had not seen when approached by newsmen.

Also, the unspoken language in the response made on behalf of President Jonathan on the alleged report could mean that the EFCC now has the freedom to charge to court anybody it feels must have soiled his hands in the car purchase issue, without any inhibition. Afterall, what the Presidency said about the independence of EFCC was not new.

The House of Representatives, which passed the EFCC Act, had since 2005 told the former boss of the commission, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, that no law in the land permitted him to show findings of his commission’s investigation into any case to the president. It was aftermath of case involving former Senate president, Adolpus  Wabara and former minister of education, Professor Fabian Osuji, concerning alleged bribe-for-budget scandal. The House had taken exceptions to the way former President Olusegun Obasanjo went on air to announce to the whole world the alleged involvement of Wabara, Osuji and some other lawmakers, following the conclusion of the EFCC’s investigation and submission of its report to him. Ribadu had merely said Obasanjo was his boss and, therefore, he was compelled to give him the report on the alleged scam.

With the declaration made by the Presidency on the House car scam, attention is now focused on the EFCC to take definite stand on the allegation that the House had since dismissed and exonerated those alleged to be involved, following investigation conducted by its own committee headed by Honourable Saleh Minjibir. The question is: Will the EFCC also be prepared to lay to rest the scandal by causing the trial of whoever has been found culpable by its findings? It is believed that such would give some or all those whose names might have been variously mentioned the opportunity to clear their names and be able to sleep easier than night.