The Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday threatened to issue a warrant of arrest for Akinwunmi Ambode, the immediate past governor of the state and four other officials who served under him.
The four others are, Kazeem Adeniji (Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice), Olusegun Banjo (Commissioner for Budget), Akinyemi Ashade (Commissioner for Finance), and Wale Oluwo (Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources).
This decision followed two preliminary reports presented on Thursday by two ad-hoc committees set up by the House to investigate the 820 buses purchased by Mr Ambode and to appraise the 2019 mid-year budget.
Presenting the preliminary report, the committee chairman, Fatai Mojeed, informed the house that due process was not followed in the award of the contracts.
According to him, the former governor used the refund of the Paris Club for the purchase of the busses without the approval of the House.
He said, “He (Ambode) did not inform the House before commencing the purchase of the buses. Over N48 billion was spent on the purchase of the busses and N22 Billion was spent on import duties.
“520 of the buses are still at the seaport.”
“The committee invited 20 stakeholders, 16 of them complied while four of them refused against the constitutional provision.”
Following a thorough debate of the matter by members, the speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, in his remarks noted that the matter was beyond the issue of an arrest warrant.
He said, “When this House invites people and they refused to show up, it is like setting a bad precedent for others coming behind.
“The clerk should write them, including the ex-governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, and if they refused, we will do newspaper publications and after that, we will issue a warrant of arrest.”
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