N2.3bn scam: EFCC summons Bankole, others
20 May, 2010 08:08:00 ERASMUS ALANEME, Abuja
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Chairman of EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has summoned the leadership of the House of Representatives, over the controversial N2.3billion car purchase scam rocking the House since 2008.

Chairman of EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri said the commission has concluded investigations into the matter and would soon charge those indicted to court.

While the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole is to explain what led to the inflation of the contract, his deputy, Usman Bayero Nafada will explain why his account was allegedly used for the transaction.

Meanwhile, the commission may have temporarily cleared the Vice President Namadi Sambo of allegations of corruption, insisting that aside the petition being frivolous, the State Security Service (SSS) in Kaduna State had handled the issue before.

Speaking in Abuja yesterday, Waziri said following the conclusion of investigation into the car purchase scam, she was now set to prosecute all the actors indicted by the investigation.

Waziri said the case file has already been sent to the commission’s legal department where it will be studied by prosecutors after which a case would be filed in court.

"We did our investigation and we have concluded it. "We have sent the case file to our legal department where it will be studied and case prepared."

It will be recalled that the commission had on April 20, invited Nafada for questioning in connection over the contract for the purchase of Peugeot cars in 2007 for lawmakers.

EFCC spokesman, Femi Babafemi, had told journalists that the missing money was traced to the Deputy Speaker’s account in the course of investigation.

The anti-graft commission had commenced its investigation into the alleged scam when Human Rights lawyer, Festus Keyamo, petitioned it over the transaction between the House leadership and Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN), a transaction which he described as fraudulent.

In his petition, EFCC lawyer, Festus Keyamo had explained that the clerk of the National Assembly awarded the contract for the supply of the 380 units of 407 ST (Sports) Auto to PAN at N2,359,486,500, adding that what was eventually supplied was the 407 Comfort Automatic at a total of N1,570,800,000.

Part of the petition read: "Interestingly, what the company quoted was not what was eventually supplied. What the company quoted for was the 407 ST (Automatic) at a unit price of N6, 209,175. What was eventually supplied was the 407 Comfort Automatic which was shown to be worth N5, 100,000. The difference therefore per unit of car supplied is N1, 109,175. This translates to a total of N421, 486,500 misappropriated by the House under the leadership of Dimeji Bankole."

On the petition against the Vice President, the EFCC boss said the issue of extortion of money contained in the petition had been investigated by the (SSS) in Kaduna before now.

She said: "Most of the allegations are frivolous. There is a lot of falsehood in the malicious petition. Some people just write petitions to pull others down, that is why we must do a thorough job when we get a petition,"