The opposition to the Speaker, House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, over the N628million contract scandal assumed a new dimension on Thursday as a member of the House, Mr. K.G.B. Oguakwa, said those found culpable risked being sentenced to a cumulative 47-year jail term.
Oguakwa also resigned his position as the Chairman, House Committee on States and Local Governments.
The lawmaker said he could no longer function in that capacity under Etteh because of the credibility burden the House leadership was facing.
His letter of resignation dated October 10 and addressed to the Speaker, was made available to newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.
However, in a swift reaction to Oguakwa�s resignation, the Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Mr. Ita Enang, said his action was influenced by personal interest.
Enang said Etteh had turned down Oguakwa�s request to have National Boundary Commission as one of the agencies under his committee�s oversight function as was the case in the Senate.
Giving details of the cumulative jail terms, Oguakwa said that Section 22 (3) of the Independent Corruption Practices and Other Offences Commission stipulates seven years jail term for contract inflation above prevailing market rate.
Others are Section 22(4), which provides three years jail term for awarding contract without budget provision.
Section 22 (5) stipulates one year jail term for illegal virement (transfer of funds) from one head of expenditure to another.
Section 19 stipulates five years imprisonment for using one�s office to confer unfair advantage upon associates.
�Section 16 provides seven years for making false statement with respect to use of funds under her control,� he said.
According to him, Section 57 (12) b deals with �Prohibition of relation with contract such that could make personal gains possible,� adding that restricted tendering was clearly breached.
Only three companies, instead of five stipulated by law, bid and secured the contracts.
Section 58, he argued, �Stipulates five to 10 years jail term� for these infractions, just as the Criminal Code in Section 118 prescribed 14 years imprisonment for perjury.
Citing the panel�s report, Oguakwa, who is also a lawyer, said, �There was no budgetary provision in the 2007 Appropriation Act for the renovation contract bazaar.
�And what happens in a bazaar is the concept of going, going, gone,� an obvious allusion to the likely ouster of the Speaker.
Meanwhile, the President, Yoruba Council of Elders, Maj-Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd), on Thursday faulted the decision of Etteh not to step aside ahead of Tuesday�s commencement of discussion of the Idoko panel report.
According to the YCE leader, the embattled Speaker should have taken a more honourable path by stepping aside just before the nine-man panel was composed by the House last month.
Adebayo, who spoke on national issues in an interactive session with journalists at his Lagos residence, also called on President Umaru Yar�Adua to take urgent steps towards reconstituting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to safeguard it against unnecessary controversy.
Adebayo said a retired judge as EFCC chairman would avert the unnecessary rift between the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and the EFCC chairman over the position of law.
�The current EFCC chairman, who is an Assistant Inspector-General of Police, is hard working, but I think the usual criticism over the legal approach would stop if a retired judge is appointed as EFCC boss,� he said.
Adebayo said it was wrong to bring in tribal politics to the investigation of the Speaker and her deputy in the contract awards, adding that the elected representatives of the people should be allowed to handle the matter.
He, however, said that Etteh had compounded her case by her refusal to step aside so that proper investigations could be done to the matter.
Commenting on the various calls for an amendment to the 1999 constitution, Adebayo admitted that the country deserved a better legal framework to take care of diverse challenges in the polity.
He said it would be appropriate for government to consider the report of the National Political Reform Conference in Abuja in 2005 and the People�s Constitution being promoted by the Pro-National Conference Organisation.
Adebayo said the two documents were capable of producing a pragmatic and people -oriented constitution.
He said, �Government can set up a committee to work on the documents which would later submit its report to the National Assembly.
Government must ensure that these genuine efforts are not in vain.�