Posted by By RAZAQ BAMIDELE and MUYIWA OYINLOLA on
Founding father, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick Fasehun on Wednesday absolved the embattled Speaker of House of Representatives, Mrs Patricia Etteh of any wrongdoing in the contract award saga currently rocking the legislative house.
Founding father, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick Fasehun on Wednesday absolved the embattled Speaker of House of Representatives, Mrs Patricia Etteh of any wrongdoing in the contract award saga currently rocking the legislative house.
The OPC leader stated this in Lagos, even as a youth group in Abuja, National Youth Congress (NYC) threw its weight behind Etteh with a vow to resist attempt to remove her from office without giving her a fair hearing.
Fasehun accused those insisting that she must leave the office at all cost as lacking details of what actually transpired in the controversial N628 million house renovation scandal.
Addressing journalists in Lagos, he stated that there was no portion of the investigative panel report that directly indicted the speaker, alleging that the campaign against her continued stay in office was both prejudicial and a ploy by some disgruntled members of the House to force her out of office.
'I think we should not allow the people, who did not get the offices they wanted to get when they came in, to hold this nation to ransome," he said.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the National Coordinator of NYC, Pauline Omali called on all well meaning Nigerians, as well as the 360 members of the lower House 'to look beyond the surface of the matter to unveil the real motives of the promoters of this conflict," adding that 'some people were fuelling the conflict with a view to benefiting from Etteh's impeachment."
According to the NYC boss, the group has examined the matter thoroughly and discovered that 'the whole issue was a plot with dubious self centred motives" while calling on all Nigerians to 'strongly oppose the moves by the well integrated, but minority axis of darkness to get the speaker indicted when the House resumes." They solicited the support of the citizenry to work against the power of darkness to strengthen the nation's nascent democracy.
While exonerating Madam Speaker, the group pointed out that 'only N59 million was approved for release before the suspension of the contract" stressing that 'in several other instances in this country, it would not have been out of place to effect 75 per cent release in view of the urgency of the consignment."
The group, which gave kudos to the Speaker for shunning temptation to live an extravagant life in a Five Star Hotel and incur unnecessary expenditure for the country, said 'this has left us with no alternative than to conclude that some vested interests are over playing the ostrich in this matter." They claimed that with the Speaker's action 'major sign post and indication of corrupt intent or motive is absent in this matter."
'We therefore call on all Nigerians to stand firm on this matter, rebuke where necessary, but ensure that nobody is thrown away with bathwater" Omali appealed, emphasizing that 'the days of frivolous and satanically inspired impeachment are over."