By VICTORIA OJEME
ABUJA—A cloud of uncertainty was yesterday hovering over the continued stay in the federal cabinet of the embattled Minister of State for Health, Alhaji Suleiman Bello, ahead of his expected trial for corruption by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC.

The Presidency was non- committal on speculations concerning the fate of the embattled minister who himself has said that the unfolding development will be an unforgettable experience for the rest of his life.

The ICPC has meanwhile lined up a pack of witnesses to testify against Bello one of whom is expected to tell the trial court that there is no provision for hardship allowance in the entitlement for officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, where Bello worked at the time of the offence in 2007.

Bello, according to findings made by the ICPC, requested and obtained N14.25 million as “Hardship Allowance” from the Adamawa State government while he served in the state as Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC. The request, according to the ICPC, was against laid down provisions.

According to the proof of evidence, in the charge sheet, FHC/YL/125C/2010, dated December 7, 2010, obtained by Vanguard, a former Director of ICPC Mrs. Eno Gamble, is expected to testify before the court and rebuff claims by the Minister that he had authority to solicit money from the state government.

In the proof of evidence against Sulieman, Gamble is expected to tell the court that, “hazard allowance is not part of the condition of service of staff in INEC and that the state office has no power to create any allowance from the governor or any agency of government or person.”

The former DFA, as gathered in response to enquiries from the ICPC, also dismissed Suileman’s claims that part of the said money was used to fund relocation of Adamawa INEC state office to its new building.

She is therefore expected to tell the court that, even though she could not confirm if funds were approved from the INEC headquarters for the relocation of the office,  Sulieman ought to, “use the funds from routine overhead remitted to the state office from the headquarters on monthly basis.

“She will say that the State Accountant actually informed her that they used the said funds from main over head account for the relocation. She will testify that the fund remitted to the state is enough for the conduct of the elections because it was based on the submissions by the Operations Department,” the document stated.

Other witnesses, as learnt, include two members of the investigative panel, set up by the ICPC to probe the petition upon which the investigation against Bello was made.

The Minister has meanwhile claimed that he was misled to request for funding from the state government under the guise of “hardship allowance”

In the statement made to the ICPC exclusively obtained by Vanguard, an apparently remorseful Sulieman said, “this is an experience, especially the inappropriate use of the word “hardship allowance” I will never forget in my life. I am sincerely sorry about it.”

He admitted that, the money collected from the state government was not the normal allowances paid by INEC, saying, “The allowances we collected and shared were not the normal allowances.

Speculations that, the minister may have asked to leave the Federal Cabinet on account of the allegations could not be confirmed as he reported for work yesterday, with no indications that he was set to quit office.

The Head of Information and Public Affairs in the ICPC, Mr Mike Sowe, also said, the anti-graft body is not statutorily bound to write the Presidency about Sulieman’s matter, saying, “  it is not our right to write to the Presidency, if we do that, it means we do not know our job. It is not in the Act”.

Presidential spokesman Ima Niboro in response to a text message ruled out speculations that the embattled Minister had been asked to remain in the cabinet until the end of his trial.

In 2008, Prof. Adenike Grange the then Minister of Health was reportedly compelled to resign before she was prosecuted among other senior officials of the Ministry over disbursement of the unspent 2007 budget of the Ministry. She was, however, eventually acquitted of the allegations filed against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.