There was high drama at the inner chambers of the House of Representative today. Naija News Desk learnt that Speaker Dimeji Bankole who was accused yesterday of securing loans that led to the heavy indebtedness of the lower arm of the national assembly appeared before his colleagues as expected.
At the end of the closed door session Bankole announced that the crisis is a family affair and the salaries and allowances of those yet to be paid would be paid. He explained that nobody collected any secret loan for personal use In the words of reporter that was an open indication that the speaker survived the crisis. Unofficially the loan is known to be about billion, but there has been no official confirmation of the amount yet.
Earlier in the day as soon as the prayers were made in the morning Honourable Ettah Enang moved that the House should go into a closed door session. This drew an uproarious ‘no’ from the lawmakers. But the speaker hit the gavel and approved the closed door session.
Sources said the closed door meeting today was characterized by pathetic, dramatic scenes as Bankole who actually attempted explaining what happened was said to be incoherent throughout his presentation. In fact, at some point Bankole wept as he begged his colleagues for forgiveness over what happened. A source said the speaker was so disorganized that at a point behind the scenes, he was given some water to drink to calm down.
The high point of the drama, said a source was when Mrs Patricia Etteh intervened, seeking a soft landing for Bankole; because she believes the Yoruba nation must not be disgraced. In deed that was an ironic twist in the tale because Etteh had been ‘dethroned’ over alleged financial impropriety-a crisis which later led to Bankole’s emergence as her successor. They are both from the South West zone.
Dino Melaye known to be Etteh’s key loyalist yesterday raised the allegation yesterday that an alleged indebtedness of the House of Representatives to a bank led to the inability of the bank to pay him and others their backlog of financial entitlements. He called for the suspension of the speaker to facilitate a thorough probe;but lawmakers yesterday insisted that Bankole should rather be allowed to explain himself today.
No further details of the closed door meetings have emerged yet. But this latest development indicates a worsening of the plight of the outgoing speaker who recently lost his reelection bid. Worse still the EFCC is believed to be investigating the Speaker over analleged N3 billion car scam that rocked the lower chambers of the House of Representatives some time ago.
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