BY ONYEKA AJUMOBI ONOCHIE
Barely 24 hours after the Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Godswill Akpabio, had claimed before the House of Representatives Public Hearing that majority of the sleazy contracts being probed were offered to members of the National Assembly, the rattled Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday, ordered him to publish the names of contract beneficiaries in the interest of fair hearing and integrity of the legislature.
Speaker Gbajabiamila and his colleagues who saw the claim as unsubstantiated, gave the minister a 48 hours’ grace to publish the names so as to clear his name and those of the law makers, bearing in mind the weight of sleaze that has characterized the commission within the period under review.
Akpabio, a former Senator, had been interrogated for several hours by the House Public Hearing Committee for his alleged persistent meddlesomeness in the NDDC affairs, especially in the award of billions of naira contracts, which were later seen to lack integrity and fraught with illegalities.
His allegation came as a short cut hours after he was unable to give convincing answers to the various questions posed to him, prompting him to allege that over 60 per cent of the phony contracts in question were given to members of the National Assembly. Up till the time of filing this report, the minister has not provided the list.