Monday 6 August 2012

Bayelsa Assembly battles with N78m S’Africa trip scam


Speaker, Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Mr. Kombowei Benson
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.

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