By EMMAN OVUAKPORIE
ABUJA — THE controversy over the alleged N10 billion loan taken by the House Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, took another twist yesterday as immediate past House Minority Leader and Senator-elect, Muhammed Ali Ndume, declared that Bankole was misled by a senior government official in the National Assembly.

In an interview, Ndume said: “Not that I was dissociating myself from what happened but the fact remained that I warned Bankole that the House budget would not be able to sustain the allowances of members in the report submitted by the 37 wise men.

”At the meeting, I objected to the jumbo pay and the senior official was asked whether the House budget would be able to sustain the allowances and he answered in (the) affirmative that the budget would be able to sustain the payment of over N42 million quarterly allowances as against the previous N27 million.”

He said it was shocking to say that the House was indebted to banks because it lacked money to run its affairs when the senior official had assured the leadership and other members at the executive session that the budget would be able to finance the allowances.

Ndume said Bankole shared the blame because “some of us warned him against the jumbo pay so nobody knew when he was collecting the loans.”

The senator-elect explained that  the problem in the House was that the leadership has not been effective in the management of the House.

According to him, “Bankole was misled, he relied heavily on the bureaucracy at the expense of the body of leadership, I can say that anywhere. It is unfortunate that this is happening in the House, the speaker was warned severally by some of our colleagues, I personally warned him, I reported him to his father but when I realised that he was not ready to change I decided not to go to him for any advice on the running of the House.”

It will be recalled that the controversial loan has led to the invitation of the Speaker by the anti-graft agency and was expected to appear before the commission yesterday.

Bankole presided from 10am to12noon before he left the hallowed chamber yesterday and was said to have not visited the anti-graft agency.