The House in a statement today says ” the directive to press charges against the Minister has not been lifted by the House as the leadership is busy considering the weight of the Minister’s letter, OBSERVERS TIMES learnt.
OBSERVERS TIMES earlier reported that While responding to questions during a public hearing of the investigative panel which was set up to probe the corruption allegations against Akpabio and members of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC last Monday, the minister claimed members of the national assembly were the greatest beneficiaries of the Commission’s projects.
“So it is important that people who have gone to court, people who genuinely did jobs should be paid for their jobs. For me, I am not against it because, of course, who are even the greatest beneficiaries? It is you people,” Akpabio had said.
Reacting to the allegations, the Speaker of the House of Reps, Gbajabiamila on Tuesday, gave Akpabio a 48 hours ultimatum to produce a list of House members who obtained NDDC contracts. He also ordered Akpabio to reveal the sum of contracts, locations and companies used to exercise the contracts, failure to comply which will be met with consequences.
The House is probing the Commission for the misappropriation of funds to the sum of N40 billion.
The speaker said he has held leadership positions in the House since his days as Minority Whip and that the House has lived up to its reputation, adding that the House will not let anyone assassinate its character and “deflect accountability” for misconducts allegations.
He said the House will resist any attempt to soil the reputation of the institution externally or internally and it’s ready to stand on its commitment.
61
