wegga:

It is a widely known truth that there is corruption in the civil service, but who is suppossed to prevent this? I'll tell you; The higher ups, the 'lawmakers' are there as a check to make sure that there are rules\laws that ensure everyone 'behaves' themselves, but they're to busy 'enjoying' their posh homes and fast cars to bother with their 'real' jobs!!!! moreover, when our leaders are eating in the millions why wouldn't he common man hustle for the thousands!!!!!

wegga:

If El Rufai is ever to be detained or arraigned in court, it should be after same has been done to EVERY single one of our 'lawmakers' and their ilk,

ndu_chucks:

Your statement that the 6th House of Representatives broke the law by increasing allowances for 358 of the 360 members of House of Representatives can be easily debunked in court. Let's take a quick look at section 84 fo the constitution:

84. (1) There shall be paid to the holders of the offices mentioned in this section such remuneration, salaries and allowances as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, but not exceeding the amount as shall have been determined by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.

According to the constitution, the National Assembly has the constitutional duty to prescribe salaries and remuneration of members of the House of Representatives. The duties of RMAFC, is to set a limit which the NASS should not exceed. RMAFC does not have the authority to increase or decrease allowances or other remunerations.

Based on what is reported in this case, Bankole and NASS did not spend more than the limit established by RMAFC.  (1)NASS voted to increase allowances - a constitutional act (2)NASS did not pay its members a penny over the limit established by RMAFC (from government funds/budget)  -  RMAFC has no authority whatsoever on how the said loan proceeds were spent by Bankole and others.

EFCC goofed here, I'm sorry to say that Bankole and the 6th House of Reps have perpetrated one of the biggest 419 in history. These people deserve to be shot, if I may quote Sanusi.

oyb:

Meeen NL is big business o

see as our politicians all have mouthpieces on nl

ndu_chucks:

@bioye, I appreciate your effort to tell the other side of the story.  Would you be willing to proclaim, with the same amount of vigor, that the action of the legislators including bankole in this case is morally reprehensible, even if 'legal'? Would you sir, be willing to admit that the said action by the legislators and Bankole is morally equivalent to theft, albeit 'legal'?

WisdomV:

not many people can stand by this type of truth, it is courageous. Allowing people to call you names and all of that, attacking you left right and center. it doesnt matter what your rship is with the accused for as long as you are not misinforming the forum your opinion matters and we are all ears.

Donlittle:

is like u knw something, that we all dont know, cause the way u defend, this guy on Nland, is becoming suspicious, please enlighten us, are u related to him, your his boyfriend?? or your just being loyal and saying the truth?? no abuse intended. 

Sagamite:

1) I think it is the responsibility of the speaker to guide what can be discussed and if he does not and then approves decision on what should have not been discussed that leads to financial loss for the state and financial gain for him and his fellow thieves, then he is culpable.

2) Even if the legislathieves vote money for themselves, it is Bank-Ole that decided to go to a bank to borrow at a loss to the state. I will need to know whether it is within his powers to be borrowing money (even if the decision of the house qualifies for "any question".

It is clear he approved the milking of Nigeria by legislathieves and he benefited the most! We need to know whether his approval is illegal or was executed (by borrowing) illegally.

Sagamite:

You still have not explained what "any question" is.

Surely if the legislative arm decides to vote whether to Soludo to death for the 5 bank's crisis, it is the responsibility of Bank-Ole to say that is not a matter or "any question" for the legislative and he would not approve it.

So what is "any question" and how come the legislathieves led by a Bank-Ole be voting money to themselves?

Ileke-IdI:

Bankole is right, like someone said.

The reason why EFCC arent on the billions found in Bankole's acct is because that money was shared amongst out politicians. To arrest Bankole for that crime, many of them will also be charged.

X-factoria:

Factored into the budget under which expense head Or was it stated as "borrowings - to pay increased allowance"??

You see, that is where the criminality lies. They must have concealed it under one frivolous expense. That in itself is criminal and Bankole is busy making mouth that he can't be convicted!!

X-factoria:

I am not in a contest, so victory or defeat does not arise. However, I disagree with Bioye's interpretation or definition of executive session. As rightly put by Wikipedia and also succinthly put by (http://legacy.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/execsesh.htm), It is a closed or secret floor or committee session. I highlighted the latter part of that definition because that is what is applicable in the case at hand.

Bankole for whatever reason and many members of the house were not at the meeting. It was not an all-comers meeting. It was a meeting of a block of house members which I presumed to be Principal Officers. As some papers reported it correctly:

"The executive session of that day was presided over by Deputy Speaker Nafada. It was, nonetheless, a decision of the whole House, which meant the speaker was also included".

The part in bold suggested clearly that it was not the whole house meeting but the decision was binding on the whole house. Note the word nonetheless.

bioye's assertion that the fact that it was a closed door meeting is what makes it executive session is not correct. An executive session cannot have all members in attendance but only those that matters. Period!

WisdomV:

Where is the rest of the money that is not 38B naira. What of others? Is Bankole being tried for bad judgement or corruption?

Toaskarity:

is that monthly or yearly? i cant get it?

X-factoria:

Bioye, I insist you need to be schooled. See the bolded phrase in excerpt from the article you refeered me to and tell me what it means:

Fresh facts which emerged at the weekend concerning the N10billion loan scandal in the House of Reresentatives that just ended its tenure suggest that the sourcing which resulted in the present situation was the product of an executive session where members insisted on enhancing their allowances.

-------

The new running cost that was approved by the executive session of March 30, 2010, is as follows:

Speaker, N100m

Deputy Speaker, N80m

-------

The executive session of that day was presided over by Deputy Speaker Nafada. It was, nonetheless, a decision of the whole House, which meant the speaker was also included.

X-factoria:

We are talking about management of the house finances here not constitutional matters. The Principal Officers decide on management matters. Get the difference please.

X-factoria:

From what Bankole is saying, they are the same case. The highest management decision making body in the NPA is its board of directors which Bode George once chaired. The highest management decision making body in the House of Reps is a committe of its principal officers which Bankole also chaired nomenclature notwithstanding. The clerk of the House of Reps and other staff of the House execute decisions taken by Bankole and co and they also serve advisory roles as Bankole himself reiterated. Bankole did not say that the clerk took any of the decisions.

Who says he couldn't reject a house resolution that is inconsistent with the law? Do you know what that Mase means? The speaker and other principal officers carries the authority and the responsibility of the House. Why do you think their renumerations are different if they are just ordinary House members? You need to be [b]schooled [/b]on why there are offices for principal officers in the first place.

Then on the President signing the budget after the house loan scam became public knowledge, I am not sure if it was disclosed as house borrowing to be repaid. But be that as it may, I tend to agree with you that it is inexcusable for the President having pre-knowledge of the scam and yet signed that budget. However, there were going to be grave implications of delaying the budget beyond the life of the last legislative assembly. If the President sends it back to the National Assembly and the budget was not signed then, it will have to pass the review of the incoming legislators and that will take time.

Sagamite:

That is not moral culpability, that is a criminal act.

It is like a President stopping/covering up the prosecution of corrupt ministers/governors because he feels without their support he would not win the next elections.

bay77:

Could it be that the presidency never knew about the loan until it got in to the news? If that is the case, then we dont have a working presidency.

Could it be that the presidency knew of it but couldnt do anything within legal limits to stop it? If that is the case, does it mean that there were no other legal means to stop it? Which would mean that as at that time the activities of the speaker was legitimate. I am sure there were several sittings at the house to get them to approve the loan and the reasons for the loan, and no one can tell me that all of this happened behind close doors until now!

Please let us talk about the way forward. i.e. preventing such scenarios in the future because for now, reasonably the actions were taken with the bounds of what we have as a legal system and codes of conduct. That may be a flaw, though.

X-factoria:

Bankole is a joker!

If he was part of a house resolution that approves that all emoluments of the legislators (including "Running Cost of members" should vary beyond what was approved by RMAFC, then he presided over an illegality, breached the constitution, abused his office and therefore culpable under the Penal Act.

How does he think he can also escape the Peugeot cars scam where there are[b] incontrovertible evidences shown by Dino Melaye[/b] (also available to the EFCC) that there were payments by Peugeot of his share of the[b] loot to his account??[/b]

Bankole may walk free, and if he does, it won't be because there are no grounds for his prosecution. Rather, it will be because some people have decided to[b] look the other way[/b] as is the case with many of such cases in Nigeria.

koruji:

Great excuse mate. The only problem is BANKOLE WAS THE ONE WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO FIX THE SYSTEM. How about that?

playboy19:

Errrr Yeah, QED. But, Hey! What did he steal exactly? $1B? N10B? What?

philip0906:

my friend chop brick. . .stop deviating 4rm d issue and tell me y bank ole should still be given vip treatment

andromida:

Actually the average Nigerian on the street does not care whether bankole is a scapegoat or not. whether the house of reps were seeking political autonomy or not. We are not that naive we know the efcc is compromised. We know corruption is only paid lip service, does that then mean that[b] if a corrupt official is caught[/b], because everyone is doing it we should let him go? All we care about is whether he is guilty and if he is guilty, he should be prosecuted and if he is the only one we can catch for now well so be it. It gives us hope that maybe one day we will be able to catch all of them.

kolexy:

Am amazed with the responses I have seen so far,  We cannot continue to insult our Elders and expect it to be well with us.

We would all become Elders one day; it is not a choice!!!!!!!!

Talking about Bankole.
True; Bankole stole money. But, lets face it. What happened to the corruption case against PDP chairman Haliru Bello. What about Nddudi Elumelu (power probe - power scam fame). All these corruption trials are annoyingly selective(not which hunting). Please where is Dr Peter "donatus" Odili. The Wife was appointed a Judge Court of Appeal sometime in 2006. She has used her position to block corruption trial of her hubby. Now Uncle Jonathan has appointed her Justice of the Supreme court. Is this not a reward for a job well done. Please let us not put sentiments into the issue @ hand. Ezeuche et al, let us look beyond ethnic affiliation. Let us all join hands to rid our country of this monster call corruption. Corruption has no ethnic affiliation. Where is Chimaroke Nnamani? DimejI Bankole cannot be worse than that Killer.

playmode:

Bioye ,who are you? Are you Bankole's friend ,relative or lover ? I have been monitoring you for a while now and it seems that you are an enemy of progress?Why so much love for a clearly evil individual who should be assassinated with immediate effect? And as per your profile pic ,i think it highly unintelligent of you to compare bankole to Mandela.It show that you have very low IQ, no morals and no dignity.If you are one of those who support those who are bringing this nation down be forewarned that when the axe falls it will hit you as well.No evil individual will be spared.