How we shared N10m - Iyabo Obasanjo; Senators got N.5m each; return tickets to Ghana, etc; Why we did not arrest her - EFCC; ICPC, EFCC at loggerheads over her arrest
Idowu Samuel, Abuja With Agency Report
Friday, April 11, 2008
CHAIRMAN of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, has explained how the Senate Committee on Health expended the N10 million it got from the unspent N300 million 2007 budget of the Federal Ministry of Health.



In a statement written by the embattled Senator to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) about the investigation of the scandal, she said the money was used to sponsor a retreat and a seminar of the committee to facilitate the passage of the Health Policy Bill.



In the statement dated March 12, obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, Obasanjo-Bello said the money was used specifically for the retreat.



“We started to expend the money for the retreat from January to pay estacode, hotel rooms and airline tickets were bought for 11 senators and two officials of the committee,’’ she said.



“Their hotel rooms were paid for and a consultant in Ghana was hired to arrange our meetings with the Ghanaian Ministry of Health and Ghanaian National Assembly,’’ she added.



She added that N500,000 was given to each member of the committee who attended the retreat while their airlines tickets from Lagos to Ghana were also purchased.



“The committee had the retreat with 10 members attending for four days at the La Palm Royal Hotel in Ghana,’’ she said. “Monies were also expended on internal (local) transportation to Lagos for all senators. All monies have been fully expended,’’ she added.



The retreat which, she said, was held between March 16 and March 21, was not attended by Senators Chimaroke Nnamani and George Akume. “Senators Nnamani and Akume, because they have not indicated that they are going, have not been given any estacode and their tickets have not been bought,’’ she said.



On how the money came about, Senator Obasanjo-Bello said: “Sometime in late December 2007, I got a call from the Minister of Health, Adenike Grange, in Abuja that the money from the ministry to sponsor the retreat and seminar was ready.



“I told her that we are going to the retreat in February or March, 2008 and that they should just pay for our expenses and for logistics there,’’ she added.

http://odili.net/news/source/2008/apr/11/616.html

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