Members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, OYHA, were surprised to see their speaker, Hon. Adebo Ogundoyin, who had jetted out to the United States of America on an undisclosed trip before the Eid-el Kabir holiday returned to the House yesterday.
OYOINSIGHT.COM learnt that though most of the lawmakers got to know about the speaker’s foreign trip few days ago, they also did not know he had arrived.
The assembly, this newspaper understands, has been under intense scrutiny in recent times, following the freezing of its account and that of the director of finance, DFA.
The DFA was said to have incurred the wrath of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for initially failing to honour an invitation of the commission.
A Post-No-Debit, PND, was placed on the accounts of OYHA and the DFA.
PND directive restricts a person from withdrawing funds from the bank account.
An official of the EFCC said though the finance director later appeared after her account was frozen, the process of unfreezing the account after a PND order had been issued was a long one.
This newspaper understands that, for many weeks now, the house cannot access its funds, thereby denying the lawmakers access to funds for their monthly running cost.
This is because the EFCC has been checking the books of the assembly over alleged financial impropriety involving procurements of official cars for the 32 lawmakers and other officials.
The official cars, the petitioner had alleged, were below the quality and expectations of the members.
Some of the official cars according to the petition to EFCC were said to have developed mechanical faults less than six months into delivery to the legislators.
OYOINSIGHT.COM recalled that Ogundoyin had, few days before traveling, said the assembly followed due process and had nothing to hide regarding the said car procurement contract.
The source also said that the EFCC picked up some top officials on Monday and remained at the antigraft agency’s office for several hours after series of grilling.
The EFCC is said to be expanding its investigation about the House to also include constituency allocation funds, running costs and others.
Unconfirmed report also suggests that some lawmakers with ‘questionable amounts’ in their accounts, would be invited.
The source further noted that it was for the purpose of widening its investigative scope that the antigraft agency froze the Assembly account to
Angered by these development, some of the lawmakers, against their traditional way of postponing plenary sitting in the speaker’s absence, were said to have perfected plans to go ahead with yesterday’s plenary with or without Ogundoyin.
Afraid of what the outcome might be, an insider told OYOINSIGHT.COM that the speaker, who might have been earlier informed by one of his trusted allies among the lawmakers, surfaced few minutes before the planned plenary.
His colleagues were surprised to see Ogundoyin, who had jetted out to the United States of America on an undisclosed trip before the Eid-el Kabir holiday surprisingly returned to the House yesterday. He was later allowed to preside.
