| Anisulowo indicted
over committee’s funds
By Tony Icheku/Joe Obi, Abuja
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
|
|
Governors
Peter Odili of River State |
| |
Following the apologies by Senator Isa Mohammed and the two-week
suspension ‘slapped’ on him by the Senate, the
searchlight has now turned to the legitimacy of the questionable
withdrawals allegedly made by Senator Iyabo Anisulowo from
the Committee’s pool.
According to the chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business,
Senator Umar Ibrahim Tsauri, Anisulowo has no right to dip
her hands into the Committee’s purse to borrow money
as alleged or to transact any other business other than Committee
business
"Our Rules are very clear; you should never borrow money
from the Committee. To borrow money for what?
You can not borrow money from the Committee in so far you
are not traveling for the Committee work.
"We are given money for Committee work, whatever you
are to do with that money should be confined to committee
functions. Anything contrary is illegal, whoever does it is
illegal."
Tsauri explains that "The secretary of the committee
has to retire every kobo spent. So how do you dip your hand
and collect the money? How do you retire it. For anybody to
say he/she borrowed committee funds - we don’t
have provision for that. I think it is an offence" he
affirmed
Anisulowo and Mohammed, chairman and vice-chairman of the
Senate Committee on States and Local Government Administration
respectively recently clashed publicly over sharing of Committee
funds.
The brawl which was conducted on the entrance to the National
Assembly chambers ended on an embarrassing note with Mohammed
assaulting her.
Answering questions on the management of Funds allocated to
Committees, Tsauri said the Senate rules states that funds
allocated to Committees are to be handled by the chairman
and the secretary to the Committee.
Tsauri further explains: "In fact, the secretary is supposed
to manage the funds based on the instructions given by the
chairman. For instance, if my Committee is given N500, 000,
it is not my job to sit down and say okay this is how we are
going to spend. The rule says that the secretary does propose
spending and the chairman approves.
"The money is meant for committee work and nobody said
you should borrow from it, nobody said you should spend it
on anything that is not in conformity with committee work
He insists that even if the senator is traveling on behalf
of the senate, the funds must be approved for such travel
by the senate leadership.
•Governors Peter Odili of River State
(right) and Adamu Muazu of Bauchi State at the 2004 Zik Prize
award for leadership held in Port-Hacourt recently. |
