N10bn loan: Reps raise 5-man team to seek Presidency’s help

The House of Representatives has appointed a five-member team to seek the help of the Presidency in its bid to secure funds to offset the salaries and allowances of its members.

The House has been in dilemma over how to resolve the issue after a commercial bank, the United Bank for Africa, withheld the emolument of its 360 members owing to an outstanding N10bn debt.

With 16 days to the end of the tenure of the current House (June 4), lawmakers are yet to receive their second quarter allocation, while the fate of their severance package also hangs in the balance.

Each member is entitled to N28.9m as official allowance per quarter, excluding monthly salary.

However, at a meeting held in July 2010, the money was said to have been jacked up to N42m.

Besides the money owed the 360 members across board, the 11 suspended and readmitted lawmakers led by Mr. Dino Melaye, are being owed about N120m each.

The money covers about 10 months of unpaid emolument, the period they were on suspension.

After the failure of the leadership to fulfil promises to raise money to free the seized funds, the House resolved on Thursday to seek presidential intervention.

The five-man team to be led by the Speaker, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, was raised at a closed-door meeting (executive session) held in the chambers.

Other members are the Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Usman Nafada; the Chairman of the House Committee on Police Affairs, Mr. Abdul Ningi; the Chairman of the House Committee on Air Force; Mr. Halims Agoda; and Melaye.

The closed-door session, which lasted for about two hours, followed a motion moved by the Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Mr. Ita Enang.

He had claimed that the House was dissolving into an executive session because there were pressing issues on “state of the nation to be discussed.”

Investigations, however, showed that at the session, described as “explosive”, angry lawmakers reportedly tongue-lashed the leadership for not “making efforts to ensure that our allowances are paid.”

The House allegedly mandated the group to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan to seek his intervention on ways to settle the allowances of the lawmakers.

“The frustration is showing on everybody now; with few days to the end of the tenure, members fear that they may go home without their entitlements,” a legislator told The PUNCH after the session.

Lawmakers, who had been hoping to collect their money this week, got to know at the session that another commercial bank (First Bank Plc) failed to honour its promise to bail out the House.

Another source said, “The board of the bank met and declined to offer the alternative N10bn loan being sought by the leadership to clear the outstanding entitlements.

“Throughout last week and early this week, we were left under the impression that the First Bank deal would work; but it was not to be.”

Findings also indicated that some members accused the leadership of the House of compounding the “woes of the House by padding the 2011 budget.”

The House’s component of the budget was reportedly padded by about N100bn, part of the reason Jonathan was alleged to be hesitant in signing the 2011 Appropriation Bill.

A member said, “Worse still, when the padding was uncovered, the budget was taken to the house of a principal officer where a few people sat to review it.

“Budgets are reviewed in the chambers by all members sitting in session, not in the private residence of a principal officer.

“This particular issue was raised at the executive session, but satisfactory answers were not given.”

Meanwhile, UBA risks losing the patronage of the House following its decision to withhold the allowances of lawmakers.

It was gathered that the bank might be penalised for “embarrassing the House in its decision to withhold the allowances of lawmakers, thereby exposing the legislature to ridicule.”