Mojisola Adeyeye,
director-general of the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and
Control (NAFDAC), says she was once asked for bribe by the house of
representatives committee on healthcare services.
Speaking when she featured on a
Channels TV programme on Friday, Adeyeye said the committee asked her for the
bribe in the form of “money for welfare” when they visited her in December,
2017.
The NAFDA DG said this happened
at a time the agency was “bleeding profusely” as a result of lack of funding.
According to her, “when I came to
NAFDAC, there were a lot of things that were wrong. Take oversight function or
whatever that is done, I was shocked when I was told to give money, I said
money for what? … money to the committee that visited us. The health care
services committee of the house of representatives.
“This was 2017 December, not even
a month to my resumption. We don’t have another country, this is Nigeria. I was
shocked first because, this was the same day I went for a Powerpoint
presentation… we don’t have equipment, about 70 percent of our equipment need
to be upgraded.
“We don’t have vehicles and you
use vehicles to go after the bad guys or to ensure compliance. Our directors
didn’t have computers, laptops, it was shortly after that, they then asked me
(and said) we need welfare.”
The video:
‘THREAT FOR REFUSAL’
“I said I cannot. For just the
visit? I couldn’t believe my ears because it saddens me. Yes, it can be
referred to as them asking for bribe. It saddens me. This is an organisation
that was bleeding profusely.”
Adeyeye added that that day was
“the worst day of my professional life” as NAFDAC DG and that her refusal did
not go down well with the lawmakers.
“It wasn’t taken well at all. I
was threatened and I couldn’t believe that too, you are threatening me?” she
said.
“Somebody that was acting like
this from the US was also out. It saddens me because we don’t have another
country.”
NOT THE FIRST TIME
This is not the first time the
members of the national assembly would be accused of demanding bribe to carry
out their statutory duties.
In 2018, Attahiru Jega, former
chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said the
federal lawmakers were “notorious for demanding bribes.”
While delivering a lecture in
Abuja, Jega had said: “Members of the national assembly engage in bribe taking
when they pursue committee works and oversight and I wonder what is happening
with intelligence and investigative responsibilities of security agencies in
policing our national assembly. Some chairmen of the committees in the national
assembly have become notorious on this issue of demanding bribes with
impunity.”
In 2018, heads of government
agencies, ministries and agencies (MDAs) had also alleged the lawmakers asked
them for bribe to pass their budget.
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