The Majority Leader of the House
of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that he was not aware that
lawmakers took a bribe before they passed the 2015 Budget.
This is sequel to a statement by
former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, alleging in her book that
the National Assembly forced the Goodluck Jonathan administration, to part with
N17billion before they passed the 2015 Budget.
According to her, the N17bn
alleged bribe was besides the National Assembly’s N150bn annual “standard”
budget.
Responding, Gbajabiamila, who was
the minority leader in the 7th Assembly admitted that lawmakers had a running
battle with Okonjo-Iweala and her aides over the budget because they fused in
their own projects to the detriment of some lawmakers.
He stated that aside from the
minister’s projects, her aides, who wanted to contest seats in the National
Assembly also padded the budget with their own projects, which caused a
division.
The majority leader added that it
was wrong of the former minister to tag money such addition to the budget as a
bribe.
“It was a sour point in the
relationship between the former minister and members at that time
“The unfair arrangement by
Okonjo-Iweala and her aides made lawmakers to demand that many projects be
sited in their constituencies as well, being the elected representatives of the
people.
“However, my hunch is that being
an election year, members might have wanted several projects sited in their
constituencies so that they could have something to campaign on.
“It is wrong to portray that
members were given money for passage of the budget,” Gbajabiamila told Punch.
Also, the spokesperson for the
Senate in the 7th Assembly, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, said the alleged addition
of N17bn could be an addition to the National Assembly budget, which should not
be misconstrued as a bribe.
“I don’t think the former finance
minister meant that the money was a bribe. I think it is the media that are
insinuating that she bribed the lawmakers.
“She said the Federal Government gave extra
funding to the National Assembly. The media should look at the National
Assembly budget for that year and see whether it was above N150bn before making
insinuations,”Abaribe said.
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