A nation betrayed: Dimeji Bankole in Court on Tuesday?
There are indications that the arrested former Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon Dimeji Bankole will appear in court on Tuesday, following his continued interrogation by officials of the Economic and Finacial Crimes Commission(EFCC).
By 8am on Tuesday morning, he must have spent well over 24 hours within which the law allows for his release, unless he is taken to Court is he is genuinely implicated by the nation’s security officials.
It has been confirmed that Bankole may officially appear in court with more time being given for his interrogation through the law if he is refused bail in the court. Unless such processes of law takes place, it will be illegal to continuously keep holding him and EFCC want to pre-empt his legal team swing into action
Already an initial four-count charges have been drawn out in connection with the N10 billion loan scandal in the house. There are more to come as EFCC is using the House link scandal to to secure his continued interrogation..
Mr Bankole, whose earlier arrest was foiled Friday last week by the intervention of the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, was picked up at his Asokoro, Abuja home by 8pm Sunday evening and is still in custody of the EFCC.
An official of the commission, who spoke with NEXT on condition of anonymity said the EFCC would arraign Mr Bankole today at a federal high court Abuja.
“The prosecution Counsel Festus Keyamo has already prepared the charge and he will likely be arraigned on Tuesday,” he said.
Speaking before his arrest, Mr Bankole admitted drawing the controversial N10 billion loan said to have been unauthorised by the House. He, however, said the decision was collective and denied benefiting from its sharing.
Mr Bankole’s comment is the first time he would publicly respond to the many allegations of corruption against him.
In a statement released on Sunday, Mr Bankole issued the first authoritative confirmation of an intimidating payroll which the outgoing lawmakers approved for themselves alongside the Senate in 2010.
Coouuurrt!, Bankole may appear on Tuesday
Mr Bankole said the loan was not a personal facility but was sourced on the directive of the House to foot the large increment in quarterly allowances approved for each member.
He said the directive was reached by a 37-member committee and endorsed by an executive session of the house.
However, as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively, Mr Bankole and Usman Nafada, were not part of the proceeds from the loan since they already earned a whopping N100 million and N80 million quarterly each, the statement signed by Media Aide to Mr Bankole, Idowu Bakare said.
“Before the increment quarterly allowance to the office of the Speaker was N100million while his deputy received N80 million. The loan in question was distributed among other principal officers and the remaining members of the House,” the statement read.
All feed fat
In the distribution as shown in the statement, Mr Bankole and Mr Nafada’s allowances remained at their initial N100 million and N80 million respectively, while those of the House Leaders rose from N46 million to N60 million.
The Deputy Leader took N57 million instead of the former N43 million while the Chief Whip took N55 million instead of the initial N41 million.
The deputy Whip received N54.5 million instead of N40.5 million and the Minority Whip took N50 million from N36 million.
Other members, including the members of the so-called Progressives, led by Dino Melaye, who claimed the loan was not known to the House, collected N42 million instead of N28 million.
In all, the differential of N14 million each for the 360 members, except for the Speaker and the Deputy, accounted for N5.012 billion and for two quarters which the loans were drawn, the amount became N10.024 billion with interest, the former speaker claimed.
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