The probe panel constituted by the Lagos House of Assembly to investigate allegations of financial misappropriation levelled against the state’s executive government had its first sitting today, but it however ignored the request by the petitioning group, The True Face of Lagos, for the sitting to be open to the public and barred media coverage.

Something gives

Also, Tunji Olowolafe, the Director of Deux Projects Limited, a major contractor for the Lagos State government, was arrested last Friday by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in connection with a petition submitted to the anti-graft agency by the same group.

The arrest was made barely 72 hours after the group followed the petition with a protest at the EFCC’s head office in Abuja where the group insinuated that the agency is afraid of investigating the allegations.

Within one week, these three events show a drastic change in tone and form, following the much reported attempt to investigate the activities of the Babatunde Fashola-led Lagos State executive government.

Consequently, the probe issue, touted as “political pressure” designed to compel the governor to give in to some pecuniary demands by his party chieftains, has now assumed a legal dimension and this unable to be hidden from public view until resolved.

Different consequences

The plan to probe the executive government was initially frowned at by a pro-Fashola group, Lovers of Raji Fashola Forum (LORAF). The group recommended that a neutral panel be set up to handle the investigation because the lawmakers were also indicted in the same allegations made by the petitioning group.

The petitioner, thereafter, turned around to withdraw the allegations made against the lawmakers – a move that some lawmakers, notably Babatunde Ogala (Ikeja constituency), found very disturbing.

However, as explained by Jiti Ogunye, a Lagos based human rights lawyer, there ought not to be any angst about the powers of the legislative to exercise oversight function over the executive government’s activities, if due process is followed.

“Under the separation of powers, (each of) the three arms of the government is empowered to exercise control over one another,” he said in a telephone interview with NEXT.

Mr. Ogunye also did not see how the wading of the EFCC into the investigation can interfere with the legislature’s because the two actions have different consequences.

“While the EFCC’s investigation can lead to criminal prosecution, that of the Assembly can only lead to removal from office of whoever is guilty as alleged,” he said.

Caught in between storms

However, contrary the promise made by the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, that the investigation would be conducted in public view, the panel, as it did today, will actually sit behind closed doors. It is expected to submit its findings to the House within two weeks.

Both the petitioning group and the pro-Fashola group have different opinions of this ‘secrecy’. While LORAF believes the two weeks given the committee are too small for a thorough investigation and therefore, smack of a plan to impeach Mr. Fashola, the petitioner believes the secrecy will provide an escape route for the governor.

“We are not shielding Fashola from accountability,” said Olugbenro Akanni, a cleric and leader of LORAF, in an interview with NEXT. “But we want a neutral body to conduct the investigation in public view. I don’t believe in the Kangaroo Assembly because they are polluted already.”

The petitioner, which has been invited by the panel to appear before it today, seems also to have lost the trust it once reposed in the ability of the lawmakers to conduct a thorough investigation. Speaking with NEXT, Adebayo Olushina, the group’s leader, accused the chairman of the probe panel, Ajibayo Adeyeye, of sabotage.

“We heard about how he (Mr. Adeyeye) went to meet with the governor (Mr. Fashola) in the US last week. This has already reduced the credibility of whatever they are doing,” Mr. Olushina said, recalling how a fresh tribunal was ordered to sit over the Osun State 2007 gubernatorial election case because a rapport was established between the tribunal judge and some lawyers involved in the case.

Mr. Olushina, nevertheless, confirmed to NEXT that its group will appear before the panel today to defend the allegations and also ask the panel to allow for media coverage of its proceedings.

However, though Mr. Ikuforiji asked the panel to ensure it invites every party affected, Mr. Akanni said his group, though it will love to appear before the panel, has not been invited. “I want to be there also but I cannot go where I have not been invited,” he said.

Budget review

It has also been argued by some members of the legislative house that the investigation would not have been ordered if the lawmakers had done their duties diligently in the first place.

Since 2008, the House has not conducted any budget review and Omowumi Olatunji-Edet (Oshodi-Isolo) argued during one of the plenary sessions on the allegations that “we cannot throw one thing under the carpet and take up urgent matters. The budget review would have revealed the allegations, if they are true. Even though we have been pre-empted, let us allow the presentation to be laid (before the House).”

Efforts to compel the budget review committee to present its report before the House have always gone in vain - even until now.

Last Wednesday, the counsel to the House of Assembly, Festus Keyamo, wrote to inform the lawmakers of an appeal filed by Richard Akinola, a human rights activist who filed an earlier suit that led to the dissolution of the first probe panel constituted by the House, challenging its power to probe the executive government.

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