*Begins authentication of ducuments

*Verifies market value of cars, tv sets,others

Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, who are probing allegations of financial mismanagement against the leadership of the House of Representatives, are now examining the various documents submitted to the commission by petitioners.

This is with a view to establishing the genuineness of the documents.

The leader of the anti-Bankole group, otherwise known as Progressives, Mr. Dino Melaye, last Monday, submitted a petition against the House leadership alleging sundry allegations of corruption, the most damning being the alleged misappropriation of the 2008 N9 billion capital vote for the House.

Supporters of Speaker Dimeji Bankole have dismissed the documents being bandied about by Melaye and his group as fake.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that besides the authentication of the documents, the EFCC investigators are also trying to establish the market value of the Peugeot cars and television sets said to have been bought for members by the leadership at inflated prices.

“Of course, they (operatives) are also looking at other areas of infraction to establish culpability”, a source said.

“The next stage will be to identify officials involved in the infraction at the level of the management of the National Assembly and body of principal officers and invite them for questioning”.

It is not immediately clear how long the current process will last but the source said the documents being examined were massive.

Farida Waziri

The EFCC chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri had vowed, while receiving the petition, that whoever is found wanting in the probe would be brought to justice.

“The law, as we say, is no respecter of persons.  Nobody is above the laws of the land; everybody is equal before the law, she said.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has also commenced  its own investigation into the allegations.

The Chairman of ICPC Justice Emmanuel Ayoola has already set up a special unit to probe the allegations of mismanagement of the sum of N9billion being capital vote of the House at the instance of some aggrieved members who referred to themselves as the Progressives. The petition from this aggrieved group got to the Chairman’s  at noon on Wednesday 23 June  2010.

Another group known as Socio-Economic and Accountability Project (SERAP) has only petitioned the ICPC to commence instant investigations into the allegations by the Progressives against the House Leadership as a means of returning transparency and accountability to the National Assembly.

SERAP and the Progressive group specifically asked ICPC not to gloss over the allegations against the House Speaker, most especially the approval the leadership gave for purchase of four units of Range Rover (8) Jeeps, three units of Mercedes Benz S-600 cars for the use of the Speaker and his Deputy to the tune of N335, 500,000.

It asked the ICPC to look into the allegation that the House leadership purchased LCD 40 Samsung LNS 341 for members at the sum of N525,000 per unit, allegedly above the market price for the product, put at the sum of N180,000 per unit”

Members of the House openly exchanged blows on the Floor of the House on Tuesday as tempers rose over the activities of the “Progressives” who are rooting for the removal of Speaker Dimeji Bankole. Eleven of them were suspended.