The house of representatives has recommended the arrest of Okoi Obono-Obla, senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on prosecution. The
The house of representatives has recommended the arrest of Okoi Obono-Obla, senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on prosecution. The house asked Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police, to arrest and prosecute the presidential aide for allegedly being in possession of a fake West African Examination Council (WAEC) result. The house also recommended the withdrawal of his law degree and law school certificate obtained with the result.
The lawmakers made the recommendation on Thursday while adopting the report of its committee that investigated the special presidential investigative panel for the recovery of public property (SPIP), which is headed by Obono-Obla. The committee had said it discovered irregularities in the O’level result which the presidential aide has, following a petition to the house by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA).
The presidential aide is said to have used the result in question to gain admission into the University of Jos where he studied and subsequently, the Nigerian Law School. Femi Ola, deputy WAEC registrar, had told the committee that available evidence indicate that the results were altered and therefore makes them invalid. The house also urged Buhari to relieve Obono-Obla of his appointment, and to dissolve the SPIP in view of the arbitrary use of powers and abuse of office by the chairman.
Other recommendations of the committee include: That the Code of Conduct Bureau should be strengthened to fill the gap that the panel (SPIP) seek to fill in the current anti-corruption drive; That the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) should investigate the allegations contained in the Audit Report of the Auditor General of the Federation of the financial transactions of the panel and prosecute the culprits.
This comes six months after the committee began to probe the presidential aide. He never attended any of its hearings even though the committee said it had invited him a number of times. He has since headed to court, challenging the power of the committee to investigate both the presidential panel as well as his educational qualifications. When the allegations were first made, he had said they were the outcome of a hatchet job masterminded by some members of the national assembly who are under investigation by my panel and that their intention was to smear and ridicule me.
