At 9. 27am, the counsel to the Assembly members, Barrister Leonard Theman, who stood in for chief Duro Adeleye (SAN) and seven other counsel ushered Mr. Wafarninyi Theman, representing Hong Constituency and Chairman House Committee of Public Accounts into the witness box for cross-examination by the panel members.
He told the panel that Ngillari, the Deputy Governor, spent over N11 million outside of the budget, arguing that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Adamawa State Appropriation Act consider extra-budgetary expenditure, irrespective of he amount, as great criminal offence.
“By spending monies that are not in the budget, it means you have no respect for the provisions of the country’s Constitution and this is a criminal offence and abuse of the rule of law,” he said.
“In 2013 only N385 million was voted for the Deputy Governor in the budget, but he spend N397 million without supplementary budget approved by the House of Assembly. This is unacceptable in a democratic government that is guided by the Constitution,” he stated.
On the controversial N50 million the Deputy Governor claimed in the media that he spent on the processing of mining licence from the Federal ministry of Solid Minerals, Theman, who backed his arguments with supporting documents, told the panel that there was no practical evidence to prove that the huge amount was used for such project.
“Up till now, the Adamawa State Government is still owing the Federal Ministry of solid minerals N53 million for not paying its grant land annual levy; no single vehicle was bought as claimed in the media by Ngillari”, he said.
On Nyako, he told the panel that documents available to his committee proved that N1billion was approved and released to the commissioner of Finance for the Adamawa State Scholarship Trust Fund, but that investigations showed that the money was not credited into the account of the scholarship board.
He explained that the authorities of the Scholarship Trust Fund while explaining to the House Committee on Education why it could not pay students’ scholarship, said they had not received the
N1billion approved and released to the Ministry of Finance by the office of the Accountant-General.
On the controversial German hospital, which government spent several billions that were not appropriated since 2009, Theman pointed out that it was only in 2014 budget that money was voted for the hospital project.
One of the panel members, Mr. Joshua T. Abu, who demanded clarification on the status of the German hospital, asked whether the German hospital was public or private, but was told that since it was included in the 2014 budget, it was government-owned.
The investigative panel was also briefed on the alleged N500 million Federal government relief funds for the 2012 flood disaster victims. Theman said that documents before him proved that only N82 million was disbursed to the victims, who were given between N200 and N300 in some of the local governments like Guyuk, Shelleng Demsa, Numan and Lamurde.
He further informed the panel that the Maiha-Pella Road was awarded at the cost of N3 billion, but the contract sum was increased to N6 billion without any budgetary approval from the State House of Assembly.
There was visible sadness in the conference hall venue of the sitting when one of the exhibits, a video CD, was played before the panel. Testimonies of government officials who were interviewed in the VCD clearly contradicted each other.
For instance, the commissioner of Finance, Alhaji Ibrahim Volkna, told the lawmakers during his appearance at the House that over N300 million was released to the Ministry of Health, but the commissioner of Health, Mrs. Lillian Stephen, in her separate appearance denied knowledge of such money.
The Commissioner for Works, Umaru Atiku, told the lawmakers in the video CD that N300 million was paid to a construction firm, Hydro Source, but the contractor for the past one year and six months did not move to site. But when the contractor appeared before the lawmakers, he denied collecting N300 million, saying that it was only N280 million that was paid to him.
The counsel to the lawmakers after citing several sections of the 1999 constitution as amended, urged the panel to hold that the complainants (Assembly) has proven his allegations of gross misconduct against the governor and his Deputy without any doubt.
The chairman of the panel, Alhaji Abubakar Kaigama, who announced the end of the panel sitting, said that the panel could not go beyond the provisions of the law.
“We are going to sit together and examine all the evidence before us and write out final report,” he stated.
Source: Guardian
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