Posted by By LUCKY NWANKWERE, Abuja on
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is gradually closing in on Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, the controversial daughter of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and may pick her up any moment from now over her role in the sharing of N300 million unspent 2007 budget of the Ministry of Health.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is gradually closing in on Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, the controversial daughter of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and may pick her up any moment from now over her role in the sharing of N300 million unspent 2007 budget of the Ministry of Health.
Although the serving senator has owned up to receiving N10 million of the funds on behalf of her committee, she was said to have refused to return the money as directed by the anti-corruption agency and equally refused to make herself available to the EFCC, in line with the undertaking she entered into with the body.
The health committee of the House of Representatives, which also received N10 million of the unspent funds, had returned its share as soon as the matter became public knowledge, while its senate counterpart is yet to do same.
A top government official reliably told the Daily Sun that the Presidency was not unaware of what the EFCC operatives called the arrogance of the former first daughter and her brazen attitude in thwarting efforts at getting to the bottom of the matter as well as the anti-corruption agency's decision to arrest her.
'In line with its stand on such issues, the Presidency will not interfere in the EFCC's handling of the matter. What President Umaru Yar'Adua preaches is adherence to rule of law. It is in the place of the anti-corruption body and not the Presidency to investigate corruption cases," the source stated.
The EFCC had delved into the case as soon as it received the petition on the flouting of the presidential directive on the return of all unspent 2007 budget funds to government coffers.
For their involvement in the ignoble act, the former Minister of Health, Prof. Adenike Grange and her Minister of State, Arch. Gabriel Aduku, were forced to resign their appointments, while top officials of the ministry were suspended indefinitely.
When the matter first blew open, Senator Obasanjo Bello, who like her father said she does not read Nigerian newspapers, had gone on the offensive, barring journalists from either asking her questions on the allegation or entering her office.
While on her way out of a meeting of the National Steering Committee on the 2008 Health Conference, she had ordered security officials to prevent journalists from gaining access to her office, saying 'Senate security! Nobody should come into my office."