The Lagos State House of Assembly, on Thursday, threatened to issue a warrant of arrest on the former governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode and four others who served under the ex-governor as commissioners.
This decision followed two preliminary reports presented by two different ad-hoc committees set up by the House to investigate the 820 buses purchased by Ambode and to appraise the 2019 mid-year budget.
The former commissioners involved include Kazeem Adeniji (Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice), Olusegun Banjo (Commissioner for Budget), Akinyemi Ashade (Commissioner for Finance) and Wale Oluwo (Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources).
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Presenting the preliminary report of a 9-man ad-hoc committee to probe the 820 buses purchased by the former governor, Chairman of the committee, Fatai Mojeed said that it was discovered that due process was not followed in the purchase of the busses.
Mojeed added that the former governor used the refund of the Paris Club for the purchase of the busses without the approval of the House. “He did not inform the House before commencing the purchase of the buses.
“Over N48 billion was spent on the purchase of the busses and N22 Billion were spent on import duties. 520 of the buses are still at the seaport,” Mojeed said.
He said further that the Accountant General of the state told the committee that she depended on the approval Ambode for the purchase of the busses and that no payment voucher was made available to the committee.
The lawmaker added that they also demanded the budget instrument used for the purchase, but that there was no budgetary provision for the purchases. “They could not produce any newspaper where the purchase of the buses were advertised.
“The committee invited 20 stakeholders, 16 of them complied, while four of them refused against the constitutional provision,” he added.
