From Kola Ologbondiyan, Chuks Okocha and Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja, 03.31.2005

Bribe-for-Budget Scandal

President Olusegun Oba-sanjo in a broadcast Tuesday last week indicted Wabara for alleged involvement in the bribe-for-budget scandal wherein some legislators collected N55 million from dismissed Education Minister Fabian Osuji to jerk up the ministry’s budget.
Ali who met the senators in the Senate Hearing Room 1 for two and a quarter hour, according to sources at the meeting, said he had received their notification that Wabara stand down and had informed the Senate President accordingly.
Wabara, said to have accepted to resign, arrived the PDP Senate caucus meeting with Ali 20 minutes after the deliberation commenced at about 2.40pm.
The PDP Senators were said to have, however, turned down the proposal by the party leadership that it would guide them on the choice of Wabara’s successor.
Ali was said to have conducted the meeting on the presumption that the position (of the Senate President) was already vacant.
He was also quoted as telling Wabara that "Mr. President would expect that you (Wabara) would do this (resigning)."
Informed sources also told THISDAY that both Ali and the Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Nasir Mantu, had mounted pressure on Obasanjo Tuesday to grant audience to Wabara. But the President was said to have maintained that he would see the Senate President after he (Wabara) must have resigned from office.
Obasanjo was said to have late Tuesday agreed to see Wabara yesterday morning. THISDAY gathered that the encounter was “bad” for Wabara as Obasanjo "admonished him heavily."
But in the course of yesterday’s closed door meeting held in National Assembly, where the PDP National Deputy Chairman (South), Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun as well as the party's National Vice Chairman (South West), Chief Olabode George, were also present, the senators were said to have taken their turns in condemning the President's broadcast as a denigration of the legislative arm.
According to one of the senators who attended the meeting, senators who spoke were also said to have itemised their roles in ensuring the stability of the administration and wondered why Obasanjo would come up with a broadcast that "over-dented" the National Assembly.
Ali was, however, said to have come short of expressing apology on behalf of Obasanjo to the senators but emphasised that the President did not mean to denigrate the legislative institution.
When the PDP National Chairman introduced the interest of the party in "making inputs or guiding" the senators on the choice of a successor to Wabara, the senators were said to have "emphatically rejected the proposition" with shouts of "No! No! No!"
"We insisted that we would want to choose the leadership by ourselves so that we can also take responsibilities for their shortcomings. Senators insisted that the leadership is Mr. President’s creation but its problem became that of the Senate. We want to be able to take whatever blames that would accrue as a result of the actions or inactions of the choice we would make as regards the next leadership," the Senator said.
THISDAY learnt that “some senators also expressed concern on the need for a soft landing” for Wabara as well as other senators indicted in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) report.
"People just expressed concern for soft landing. While some made a case for political solution, others demanded for a legal solution but no decision was taken on that," the Senator stated.
Mantu, who spoke to newsmen at the close of the meeting said; "our meeting was very successful. There was no resolution. It was a family meeting of family members. The chairman (Ali) being the mother and the father of the legislature and the executive decided to come and talk to us."
Asked if Wabara was asked to resign, he said "I did not hear that one" adding that "it was a party meeting and not a Senate affair. He (Ali) wanted to come and see how his children are faring in his constituency."
Senate Leader, Senator Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, however said "we discussed the problem and took a resolution on the problem. Things are moving fine. We have not fully resolved the issue. We are reconvening on the 5th of April."
"We have not discussed the issue of indictment or no indictment or guilty or not guilty. We have not discussed that because that was not the topic. We are only thinking of the way forward so that we can prevent the occurrence of either disagreement between us and the President of the Federal Republic or between us and the party," Tafida added
When the parley ended and Mantu led Ali and his entourage to the House of Representatives wing for another meeting, Wabara did not join them. The Senate President later walked towards his office accompanied by Senator Iyiola Omisore.
On Tuesday night, the South-west Senate caucus had met in the house of its leader, Kola Awoyefu and resolved that Wabara should resign or motion for his impeachment will be moved when Senate resumes from Easter recess.
Sources told THISDAY that other geo-political zonal caucuses in the Senate had taken similar decision.
In the House the meeting was nearly deadlocked as the legislators refused Ali’s overtures and almost staged a walkout.
Ali, THISDAY learnt, had asked them to subsume their anger in the need for the party to be at peace since it would be in the interest of the country and democracy. He was however told that there was no need for that.
Sources at the meeting which took place behind closed doors said the legislators told Ali that it was not fair on the House for the party to pretend it did not notice the way Obasanjo intentionally portrayed them in bad light in his speech and yet, seek their cooperation without addressing their grievance.
Leader, Hon. Abdul Ningi who spoke on behalf of his colleagues noted that there were 13 points in the President's speech which openly put the House across to the electorates as corrupt and working against public interest.
The legislators asked Ali to go back and study the speech and get back to them to see whether the President was fair to the House in broadcasting the result of an inconclusive investigation.
They noted that there was fear within their ranks that those the President felt were opposed to his personal programme and ambition were being targetted with phoney reports from investigative organs.
Ningi said the House was bent on going ahead with their investigations into the allegations and that any of their member found culpable would not be spared.
The legislators were said to have informed the PDP chairman that they would compile a list of the President's misdemeanors and would press ahead with impeachment motion if necessary.
They pointed out that the broadcast was a violation of the EFCC Act and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission Act which in themselves, constitute an impeachable offence since the laws foreclosed the broadcast of investigations more so when inconclusive.
Earlier yesterday, Senators and House members who were indicted in the bribe-for-budget scandal appeared before a panel of the PDP Central Working Committee (CWC) at the party headquarters.
Wabara dorning a red cap and gray-coloured kaftan and a gray shoe to match, appeared at exactly 1.09 pm accompanied by security aides.
The Senate President however refused to entertain questions from newsmen who laid ambush at the party secretariat.
He left the PDP National Secretariat at exactly 1.54 pm after a session with the NWC members led by Ali.
Also at the party secretariat were the Senate and House Committee Chairmen on Appropriation, Senator Azuta John Mbata and Hon Gabriel Suswam respectively.
Others who also appeared before the panel were the House Committee Chairman on Education, Dr. Shehu Matazu, House Committee Chairman on Housing and Urban Development, Hon. Osita Izunaso and Senator Chris Adighije.
After appearing before the committee, all of them refused to comment on what transpired before the PDP Panel.
THISDAY gathered that Adighije told the panel members how the bribe money came to be and how it was refunded eventually when the EFCC insisted.
But the Senate President was said to have denied knowledge of any money being offered by the former minister of education to legislators.
However, when contacted, Ali described the outcome of the meeting with members of the National Assembly as cordial.
He also said the committee would presume that all those that appeared before the party's NWC are innocent until proven guilty.