Representatives Committee on
Ethics investigating the $3 million
cash for clearance scam involving
Rep. Farouk Lawan and business
mogul, Mr Femi Otedola, has been
directed to reverse the decision
to hold its hearings in secret.
The directive from the House
leadership, weekend, came as it
emerged that the Ethics
Committee is to invite the
Director General of the State
Security Service, SSS, to shed light
on the scam.
The decision of the ethics
committee to hold its sittings in
camera came as a major reversal
to the transparency and
accountability profile that the
Speaker Aminu Tambuwal-led
leadership had itself sought to
portray in its actions.
The ethics committee which is
investigating the alleged bribe
offered by Otedola to Lawan to
clear his name from the list of
indicted beneficiaries of the
administration's subsidy regime
got enmeshed in controversy last
Tuesday after Otedola insisted
that he must be heard in public
and not in secret as the
committee wanted.
Following the refusal of Otedola
to submit to the secret hearing,
Chairman of the House
Committee on Ethics, Rep. Musa
Gambo had described Otedola as
"stupid," saying the businessman
abused the committee members
in the short period he was with
them in the secret session last
Tuesday.
Otedola responded the following
day, denying that he abused the
committee members, insisting
that he acted in decorum.
The ethics committee insistence
on hearing Otedola in secret,
itself, raised controversy in the
House last Thursday as some
members insisted that the
conduct of the ethics committee
violated their privileges as it
sought to portray the House in a
negative image.
A member of the House from
Kaduna State, Simon Arabo, had
at that sitting, in seeking to
condemn the action of the
committee on ethics in bringing
the House into disrepute said:
"What will it cost the committee
if Otedola testifies in the open?
There is nowhere in the House
rules that says that Otedola must
be heard in secret."
House sources disclosed that in a
bid to reverse the negative
impressions brought by the
ethics committee, the House
leadership, weekend, directed
the committee to reverse its
decision and hold its sessions in
public.
Sources disclosed last night that
the Chief Whip of the House,
Isiaka Bawa, had conveyed the
decision to the committee.
Similarly, the Director-General of
the SSS, Mr. Ita Ekpeyong, is to be
invited to brief the Ethics
Committee on the Farouk issue.
The SSS reportedly issued the $
620,000 allegedly offered by
Otedola to Lawan as bribe
money.
Lawan has said the money
received by him was collected as
evidence of the pressure from
the oil marketers, while Otedola
said that it was marked money to
show the dishonesty of the ad-
hoc committee
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