Former Nasarawa State AG Blames House of Assembly Over N1Bn Education Contract scam

BY AHMED TUKUR, LAFIA – Former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Nasarawa State, Barrister Innocent Lagi has said that the State House of Assembly should be held responsible for the failed N1billion contract for the renovation of Secondary schools in the state.
Lagi, who was also a former member of the State House of Assembly representing Wamba state constituency, said if the lawmakers had lived up to expectation and carry out their responsibilities in the last assembly, such fraud and embezzlement of public fund would have been avoided.
He said what the people of the state are interested in is judicious use of public funds not for funds to be stolen and later initiate a process of recovery.
According to him; “What is important to the people of the state is that money is not stolen but applied for what it is meant for.”
Lagi said that the house went to sleep and allowed public resources to be embezzled, adding that some individuals and agencies with a mandate to stop
the scam but refused, are culpable particularly the assembly.
Lagi, who served as a lawmaker from 2007 to 2011, blamed the State legislature for not stopping the scam, adding that 60 percent of the lawmakers in
the present assembly were present during the last dispensation when the money was embezzled.

According to him; “They waited for the money to be stolen before initiating process of recovery. The State Assembly must look beyond the secretary to the State Government, Ahmed Aiyu Tijjani, who was the then commissioner for Education and carry out a thorough job and ensure that everyone involved is brought to book.
“The investigation must not only be about the SSG but any other person that is culpable in stealing millions of naira meant for education. If the House of Assembly had carried out its role, it would have been impossible for the money to be stolen in the first place, that is my point. We don’t have to wait until the money is stolen before we begin to cry about it.
“If what they are doing now, they knew four years ago, it simply means they compromised the last four years and are trying to do the work now”.
“The House has its own problems, fortunately if they had oversight initially, we probably won’t be looking for the money, we would have preserved and ensured that the monies are used.
“So we have a House of Assembly that is with about 60 percent returnees during this regime and they sat on their hands all these while and wait for the money to be stolen then come around and want to recover money that has been stolen. There is no much you can do about that.
“The House of Assembly has not proven to be an agency of government responsible for checks and balances, rather they have themselves colluded
and sleeping on the same bed with the executive.
“If a referee is seen having dinner with a member of another club he wouldn’t be allowed to refer in that game because the presumption of bias is definitely ignited because of the fact that the referee is expected to leave above board.
“They have accepted contracts; they have accepted employments that are done without due process. So, if they are questioning the process now, one wonders the motivation at the moment,” Lagi enthused.
The former legislator said that the Assembly can still redeem its image by doing the right thing now and ensuring that all monies stolen in the last four years
are returned.
It would be recall that the Assembly set up an ad-hoc committee to probe N1billion contract for the renovation of secondary schools in 2018 when the present SSG was the commissioner for education.