Embattled Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello has said that N500,000 was disbursed to each member of the Senate Committee on Health from the controversial N300m scam in the Federal Ministry of Health.
The Senator, who the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission claimed on Tuesday was at large because of her alleged involvement in the scam, said the money was given to the senators to cover parts of their expenses during a four-day seminar and retreat in Ghana.
She said in a statement to EFCC that the retreat and seminar was to facilitate the passage of the Health Policy Bill.
In the statement obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday, Obasanjo-Bello, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, said it was not unusual for a ministry to sponsor an executive bill.
She said,”We started to expend the money for the retreat from January to pay estacode. Hotel rooms and airline tickets were bought for 11 senators and two officials of the committee."
“Their hotel rooms were paid for and a consultant in Ghana was hired to arrange our meetings with the Ghanaian Ministry of Health and Ghanaian National Assembly."
The senator added that airline tickets from Lagos to Ghana were also bought for each of the 10 senators that attended the seminar.
She said, “The Committee had the retreat with 10 members attending for four days at the La Palm Royal Hotel in Ghana."
“Monies were also expended on internal (local) transportation to Lagos for all senators. All monies have been fully expended."
The retreat which she explained was held between March 16 and March 21, was not attended by senators Chimaroke Nnamani and George Akume.
“Senators Nnamani and Akume, because they had not indicated that they were going, were not given any estacode and their tickets were not bought," she said.
On how the money came about, the senator said,” Sometimes in late December, 2007, I got a call from the (former) Minister of Health, Prof. Adenike Grange, in Abuja that the money from the ministry to sponsor the retreat and seminar was ready."
“I told her that we are going to the retreat in February or March, 2008, and that they should just pay for our expenses and for logistics there.
“The minister gave the phone to a director in the ministry or the Permanent Secretary (I do not recall who exactly)."
“The person said that because of the mop-up of money in December and the delay in the passage of the budget and disbursement of funds, if we do not take the money for the retreat in December, it would be sent back to the treasury.
"In order not to delay activities leading to the passage of the bill, I told them to send the money."
The money, she said, was temporarily deposited in the personal account of the then Secretary to the Committee, Mr. Angulu, for safe-keeping.
“The secretary to the Committee changed from Angulu to Mr. Edobor and Angulu handed over all the money to Edobor, who deposited it into the committee’s account," Obasanjo-Bello said.
She added, “In the last Senate, the ministry sponsored two retreats for the Senate on the National Health Bill, with one in Jos and the other in Port-Harcourt."
"Unfortunately, with all the ministry‘s effort, the bill was not passed and in this Senate we agreed that the retreat will come after the second reading of the bill and it will be in Ghana."
Obasanjo-Bello said it was the normal practice when an executive bill was being sponsored by a Ministry, that such establishment would sponsor a retreat or seminar to enlighten the members of the committee.
The EFCC had on Tuesday arraigned Grange and some top officials of the ministry before an Abuja High Court in connection with the N300m scam.
Although Obasanjo-Bello’s name was not listed alongside Grange and others, the commission filed a two-count charge against her.
The offences against her were that of conspiracy and retention of proceed of crime and stolen property.
A member of the Committee, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, had recently told The Punch, that no member of the committee collected money from the ministry.
He had said, “There was no sharing, get that clear, there was no sharing of any money by members of the Senate committee on health, nothing of such.
“The National Assembly has two chambers, I can not speak for the House of Representatives because I am not privy to what is going on there, but I can speak for the Senate in terms of what I know of as a member.”
Efforts to get Mamora to recouncile his denial of cash collection with Obasanjo-Bello’s statement of N500,000 disbursement to each senator proved abortive.
An SMS to his mobile phone at 9pm on Thursday was also not replied to.
By Mudiaga Affe
The Punch
Friday, April 11, 2008
