Speaker
of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Mr. Kombowei Benson, and 23 other
members of the assembly are battling with the allegation that they
mismanaged N78m belonging to the state under false pretences that they
attended a conference in South Africa.
The allegation was first made public through a
petition addressed to the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed
Abubakar, by a civil society group, Transparency and Good Governance
Coalition.
Benson and other lawmakers were said to have written
to Governor Seriake Dickson, demanding the money to attend the 43rd
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in South Africa from June 29 to
July 8.
Dickson was said to have approved the money on June 28 on condition that it must be used for the conference.
The civil society group, in the petition obtained by
our correspondent, alleged that the Speaker collected the money and
disbursed it to all the members.
The petition read in part, “Unknown to Bayelsans, the
Speaker and other members of the Bayelsa House of Assembly allegedly
never attended the conference but simply allegedly converted the fund
given to them to their personal use.
“While the conference which started on the 29th of
June was underway, the Speaker and members of the Assembly were
reportedly and allegedly engaged in a frolic of their own in Nigeria
until the 7th of July 2012.”
It was also alleged that the Speaker and the other
legislators left the country for South Africa on July 7, got to South
Africa in the morning of July 8 without attending the conference.
PUNCH
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