The tussle over the leadership of the House of Representatives is not yet over, following indication that those opposed to the leadership of the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, have raised issues leading to what sources called ongoing investigation of the Speaker’s role as chairman, House Services Committee in the seventh Assembly.
Sources in the legislature told the Nigerian Tribune that persistent grumbles from anti-Dogara camp had led to the discovery of some allegations bordering on how the speaker ran the committee in the seventh Assembly.
It was learnt that investigators drawn from separate agencies of government had already taken up the issues and had kicked off a probe of the Speaker.
It was confirmed that since the allegations bordered on the role of the House Services Committee in managing members’ welfare in the Seventh House, the investigators were particularly interested in the records of the House Services Committee, which was headed by Honourable Dogara at that time.
Sources confirmed that the investigators were generally checking through the records of the Strategic Committee of the House, which was responsible for payment of members, as well as their welfare.
Dogara emerged the Speaker of the House in June 2015 against the recommendation of the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which had recommended Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila as the preferred candidate.
Since his emergence, Dogara has had to battle through a number of huddles which got escalated recently with some members dragging him to court.
It was gathered that the investigators, some of whom were drawn from the anti-graft agencies, had examined several records and were at the verge of turning in their findings to the authorities.
A source said if Honourable Dogara was found culpable of any issues, he could be put on trial, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, was currently undergoing trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Sources confirmed that the bid to probe the House Services Committee of the Seventh Assembly, headed by Dogara, stemmed from a disagreement at some closed sessions in the wee days of the last Assembly, where some principal officers attempted to move against Dogara, ahead the inauguration of the eighth Assembly.
It was gathered that some top members of the House of Representatives in the last Assembly had raised issues against the House Services Committee and wanted to use the same to block the chances of Dogara emerging Speaker of the eighth Assembly.
But it was learnt that former Speaker of the House, who is the current governor of Sokoto State, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, looked into the matter and dismissed them, giving a clean bill to Dogara.
It was, however, learnt that those opposed to Dogara had resurrected the issues and that the development was the basis of a secret probe of the Speaker’s activities in the last Assembly.
A source said the Speaker might be faced with a similar battle as the one the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, was facing over the CCT trial.
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