As investigations into the Health Ministry scam involving the unspent N300million from last year’s budget continues to unravel, a director of the ministry who is being accused alongside two ministers and nine others has graphically disclosed how the money was shared.
But in the National Assembly, members of the Senate Committee on Health, which former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s daughter Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello heads are fuming over her defence mechanism which one member said was designed to pull the entire committee down.
Dr. H. B. Oyedepo, now a suspended Director of Administration in the Federal Ministry of Health, detailed how the ministry's N300 million unspent budget scam was conceived and hatched.
Oyedepo who implicated Dr. Adenike Grange, the minister and the minister of state Adukwu said: “I want to state that the decision to pay welfare package was a management decision involving the two ministers (Adenike Grange and Gabriel Aduku), the Permanent Secretary and three senior directors .''
He said the three most senior directors in the ministry included himself, the Director of Finance and the Director of Personnel Services.
According to him, it was only the details that were worked out without the input of the ministers.
On the sharing formula, Oyedepo said: “The three Service Directors got N3.5 million each while the Perm Sec, Minister of State and the Minister got N5 million, N7 million and N10 million respectively.”
He also contradicted the claim that Iyabo Obasanjo, while representing the National Assembly received N10million only. Oyedepo claimed in his statement that N20 million was paid to the National Assembly, through Obasanjo-Bello.
He explains further that, “the sharing as to how much each category of staff got was done in an informal meeting between the Perm Sec.; myself; the Director (PSO) and the Director of Finance.”
In his statement to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Oyedepo, who is being tried at an Abuja High Court, said the decision to share the money as “welfare package” was taken by the now suspended and accused management of the ministry.
He also provided details of where the plan was hatched. “It is necessary to state that the sharing of the money with respect to who gets what, was done in the Permanent Secretary's office with the Perm Sec, myself and the other directors present,'' he said.
The accused further explained that “although Grange advised that her own share of N10 million be shared to junior staff, the money was never returned by her Personal Assistant until Thursday, February 28 ''.
“The money was returned after I told the minister that the EFCC had directed that everybody should return what was paid to him or her,'' he said.
Oyedepo further said in the statement that Aduku was more anxious to get his own part of the money.
“In the case of the Minister of State, he had in fact, been getting apprehensive that the money was not paid to him in time.
“He said that he had wanted to travel, but that we have been delaying him because of the non-payment of the money to him earlier than we did.
“That was why he was the one to be paid first; the minister (Grange) was paid the following week,” he said.
“He also never returned the money until February 28 when I demanded for it. All my staff were present when his Personal Assistant in company of two others brought it to my office,'' he said.
The accused Director, who is a 33-year veteran of the civil service, had worked in various capacities in the service. He alleged that it was the officer in charge of supplies that initiated some of the purported contracts awarded to siphon the money, while he (Oyedepo) signed the papers.
Oyedepo initially denied knowing all the companies used for the deal.
However, after a search of his residence by the EFCC and retrieval of certain documents, he confessed that Strondax Ltd., one of the companies used for the purported contracts, was owned by his son, Omodele.
The EFCC had on April 8, arraigned the ex-ministers and nine others for alleged conspiracy, fraud, forgery and criminal breach of trust. The other nine are Oyedepo, the Permanent Secretary; Prof. Simon Ogandi, Hanafi Mohammed, Donald Ekanem and Donatus Inyang. The rest are J. A. Olomo, Obanla Olatunbosun, Henry Onyeagwalam and Edem Bassey.
The accused persons had pleaded not guilty to the 56-count charge jointly filed against them by the EFCC. The judge, Justice Salisu Garba, had since ordered that they be remanded in EFCC custody.
Charged with them is Sen. Iyabo Obasanjo, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health. Iyabo Obasanjo, is accused of conspiracy and retention of stolen proceeds of a crime and stolen property.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Health has been blowing hot and cold over the statement by its Chairman, Iyabo Obasanjo EFCC that she shared N500, 000:00 to each member for the seminar they attended in Ghana between March 16 and 20, 2008.
The ten other members of the Committee that attended the capacity-building seminar on the National Health Policy Bill argue that Obasanjo-Bello wants to smear their names in order to take them down with her.
Two former governors, who are now senators, Chimaroke Nnamani and George Akume did not attend the seminar.
A member of the Committee who spoke with THISDAY yesterday expressed disappointment at Iyabo Obasanjo’s approach. He said: “We feel disgusted at her approach which is aimed at trying to bring all committee members who attended the Ghana seminar down with her. Nobody was talking about sharing of money, but she has gone ahead to say that money was shared as if the money was placed on the table.
“As chairman of the Committee, it is her responsibility to facilitate such seminars and oversight activities. She should not have tried to reduce the issue to money sharing.”
However, there were indications yesterday that some members of the Senate may have initiated moves to call for a review of the Senate Code of Conduct which allows Committee members to accept support from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the course of oversight activities.
THISDAY learnt that because of the outrage by Nigerians over the N300 million unspent allocation from the Ministry of Health as support for the seminar in Ghana, some senators conclude that the specific provision of Section 3 of the Code of Conduct which seems to permit standing committees to receive support from MDAs is not popular.
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