As the Senate yesterday condemned arrests of persons invited to give testimonies in the National Assembly within its premises, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will tomorrow arraign the two former Ministers of Aviation arrested over the N19.5 billion Aviation Intervention Fund.
The ex-ministers, Prof. Babalola Borishade and Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who were picked up at the National Assembly after appearing before the Senate committee probing the aviation fund were still being held by last night.
A senior official of the EFCC told THISDAY last night that the commission would arraign Borishade and Fani-Kayode tomorrow.
THISDAY also learnt that former Managing Director of the Nigeria Airspace Manag-ement Authority (NAMA), Captain Rowland Iyayi, will also be arraigned.
The commission�s Head of Media and Publicity Femi Babafemi had earlier said Borishade, Fani-Kayode and Iyayi had made useful statements while they were being interrogated by the commission.
He said investigations were still ongoing and EFCC would not keep them for long.
Borishade and Fani-Kayode were said to have been arrested based on the information provided by Mr. George Eider, Managing Director of Avsatel Ges MB of Austria, who had earlier been arrested by EFCC.
The company had won the N.6.5 billion Safe Tower contract, which was said to have been inflated.
The Austrian was said to have made useful statements to EFCC about the two ministers and the contract.
Yesterday, however, the Senate passed a resolution barring EFCC from further arrests within the assembly of persons invited to give testimonies at public hearings organised by its standing and ad hoc committees.
The resolution, which also barred all other security agencies, followed Monday�s arrest of Borishade, Fani-Kayode and Iyayi by the commission.
EFCC had also arrested Eider, whose company got the controversial N6.5 billion Safe Tower Project last Wednesday at the assembly.
Ruling on a point of order raised by Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) on the development, the Upper Legislative Chamber said such arrests were capable of scaring away persons invited to make presentations and give testimonies before any of its committees.
He had come through Order 15 of the Senate Standing Rules (2007 as Amended).
Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), who relied on the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act, said EFCC�s action in arresting people on the premises of the assembly was illegal and unlawful.
According to him, �The privileges enjoyed by lawmakers are automatically enjoyed by persons invited to the National Assembly and I think that our guests should feel safe right here to be able to do what they were invited here to do.�
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said the issue was beyond matters of law, stressing, �Even commonsense dictates that conducive atmosphere should be created for people to come into the National Assembly and testify. Moreover the privileges of the National Assembly should be respected�
In his contributions, Chief Whip, Senator Kanti Bello, opposed the position, arguing there was nothing in the constitution that prohibited EFCC from arresting persons in and around the premises of assembly.
Bello said the people who were arrested could have escaped if they had been allowed to leave the premises of the assembly.
Senate President David Mark shared the position of Abaribe, saying the arrests could hamper the operations of the assembly.
According to him, �Some of those persons, who would be scared away, could provide useful information on an investigation being carried out by the Senate Committees.�
Mark said EFCC could have effected such arrests elsewhere outside the National Assembly premises, and called for caution in the arrest of persons invited by the assembly to appear before it or any of its committees for clarification of issues.
He said the arrests had created the impression that the National Assembly was doing the bidding of the EFCC under the guise of public/investigative hearings.
Mark expressed concern at the trend of the arrest, saying EFCC operatives had operated in a manner that suggested there was a concert between them and the National Assembly to round up suspects who appear before standing and ad hoc committees of the Legislature.
In his ruling on the motion, he directed the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media Affairs, Senator Ayogu Eze, to embark on an enlightenment campaign on the wisdom in the decision by the Senate to bar law enforcement agencies from arresting persons on the premises of the National Assembly.
According to him, �About the issue raised by Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba on the issue of entry into the National Assembly; to my simple understanding the decision to come into and go out of the National Assembly is on the authority of the Speaker or the President of the Senate.
�The issue is whether there is immunity on arrest within the National Assembly or not. And I think we should not restrict it to legal interpretations.�
He said further: �If people who come here are allowed to be taken away at will by security agents before we wind up fully (on our investigations), what we are going to end up with is a situation where people would be scared away because of the fear of what will happen to them.
�The arrest that was done in my opinion, was not based on the evidence that they have given but because somebody somewhere said something else.�
Mark added: �But since these people (EFCC) have this information, they should arrest them elsewhere. That is what we are saying. We are looking at it from a moral point of view.�
Briefing Senate correspondents at the end of yesterday�s sitting, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, said: �Actually, what has happened in the last couple of weeks is an effort by all of us collectively to strengthen our democracy.
�If what we are doing here is not reported rigorously in the press as you are doing, there is no way Nigerians would begin to build confidence because what we are doing is that we are joining hands together to build confidence in the institution of democracy because we are exposing corruption, wrongdoing, abuse of process and illegality.�
Meanwhile, former Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Alhaji Yusuf Muhammed, yesterday told the Senate Committee probing the N19.5 billion Aviation Intervention Fund that former Rivers State governor Peter Odili donated N2 billion to the fund to aid his presidential campaigns.
He said the money meant for the renovation of Port Harcourt International Airport was to aid movements of executive flights during the ex-governor�s stalled campaigns for the 2007 presidential poll.
Odili had withdrawn from the presidential race for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the eleventh hour to pave the way for the emergence of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar�Adua who was endorsed by the party as its presidential candidate for the poll.
Muhammed, who testified before the committee yesterday, said Odili, former Aviation Minister, Borishade and �perhaps former President Olusegun Obasanjo� were the ones who knew the terms of the release of the N2 billion.
He said he did not know whether the money, which was meant to renovate Port Harcourt Airport, was a grant or a loan to FAAN.
According to Mohammed, the trio of Obasanjo, Odili and Borishade, did not carry FAAN along in the deal.
He said: �The N2 billion from the Rivers State Government is an interesting thing. People say I should be a little bit careful or diplomatic. But that was the time, actually, that Chief Peter Odili was going for the presidency and there was no airport flying in Port Harcourt and in his wisdom he thought he wanted to get an airport that can, at least, do a bit of executive jet movements. That was the absolute truth.
�Then the public and those who could afford could also come in chartered jets or in smaller aircraft. So, he gave N2 billion. People are just making noise because they do not want to state the fact.
�Only Prof. Borishade and Chief Odili and perhaps, the former President (Olusegun Obasanjo) knew the term or the understanding in that N2 billion. All Yusuf Muhammed was told was you get a cheque of N2 billion from the government, pay into the bank and smartly too, as if God was helping me, I created an account totally separate from the Zenith Bank and I called it Intervention Account 2-Port Harcourt.
�The account was opened in Abuja here. That was the account that was used in the beginning because of the pressure to pay Julius Berger N200 million for them to commence work; to pay some consultancy fees totaling N172 million and then to pay Julius Berger N1.5 billion when they started work.�
He continued: �That was all about Rivers State Government. Nobody knows the term. If the government is saying it is a loan or it is not a loan, we do not know. Nobody has written anything about it. So, they should call Odili and Prof. Borishade to tell you the terms of the deal, do I call it grant or loan? I do not know.�
The former FAAN MD told the committee that the release, application and utilisation of funds by FAAN under his leadership were done within the confines of approvals from the former president and relevant ministers in the Federal Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Aviation.
He also said FAAN under his management was never involved in the conceptualisation or in the signing of the contract in respect of the Safe Tower Project.
According to him, �FAAN was also neither involved in the processing of Form M nor in the establishment of the letter of credit for the Safe Tower Project.�
The Senate committee had on Tuesday asked the incumbent Managing Director of FAAN Richard Aisebogun to restructure the agency in line with the federal character principle of the government.
The order, according to the committee, became expedient following revelations that there were discrepancies in the operation of the organisation during the tenure of Fani-Kayode.
Former Chairman of the Board of FAAN, Captain Elendu Ukeje, also alleged that Fani-Kayode illegally created the Directorate of Environment in the ministry contrary to civil service rules.
Jul22008