Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN)
By Oziegbe Okoeki
A group, True face of Lagos, yesterday asked the Lagos State House of Assembly to hasten its probe of Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) based on its catalogue of allegations.
Led by its President Mr. Adeshina Adebayo, members of the group told the Ad-hoc committee of the House set up to investigate the allegations promised to tender all the documentary evidence to backup their claims.
Adeshina presented to the committee two documents detailing the contracts awarded by the ministries of Works and Health, maintaining that an account should be properly rendered.
He said it was wrong for one company, Deux to get 11 out of 19 contracts which it failed to execute to specification despite the fact that it had collected 50 – 70 per cent down payment.
Some of the allegations, like the N250million to NBA, N420m for private security, huge amount spent on beautification and the importation of palm trees from Niger Republic, Adeshina said are moral burden on the government, because the funds could have been expended on more pressing needs of the people.
He said the group could not come with more documents for security reasons as they were at different locations due to series of attack on his premises.
Although, he said documents for all the allegations cannot be presented, he however promised that he would come with more documents when next he appears before the panel.
Quizzed on how he came about the documents, Adeshina said he got them from some patriotic individuals within the state civil service, "which triggered off our action when we were convinced that many of the allegations could stand the test of time". But he refused to disclose who the individuals are.
According to him, majority of the issues, has to do with following due process and the House not giving approval for some of the expenditures.
Members of the committee were however, not too happy with the presentation as they expected the group to be more forthcoming with facts.
According to Hon. Sanai Agunbiade, we want you to prove to Lagosians and Nigerians that these allegations are not baseless because this has actually heated up the polity.
The Chairman of the committee who is also the Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Ajibayo Adeyeye, advised the group leader to see committee members privately if he has some information he cannot disclose publicly, "as much as possible we want evidences to back up most of these allegations", Adeyeye said.
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