House threatens to arrest Akunyili, others for stealing Ministry Vehicles

The House of Representatives Committee
on Public Accounts, Wednesday,
threatened the former Minister of
Information and Communications,
Professor Dora Akunyili, with arrest and
prosecution should she
fail to return vehicles belonging to the
ministry in her possession within one
week.

Also to return government vehicles or face
similar treatment are a former Minister of
State in the Ministry, Alhaji Ikra Bilbis,
and the Permanent Secretary, Federal
Capital Territory, FCT, Engr Anthony
Ozodinobi. The vehicles were said to have
been attached to them while they held
forte in the ministry.
The vehicles in question are four Toyota
Hillux Double Cabin pick-up vans.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Adeola
Solomon Olamilekan, who handed down
the order after hearing the submission of
the officials of the Ministry led by its
Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Kehinde Ajoni,
who appeared before the Committee over
the queries raised against the Ministry by
the Office of the Auditor General of the
Federation, said all efforts to retrieve the
vehicles from the former officials since
2010 had proved abortive.
The Committee therefore threatened that
failure on the part of any of them to
comply with the directive would lead to
their being dragged before the court and
charged for stealing of government
properties in accordance with the law of
the land.
"This is unacceptable, they should all
return the vehicles in question within one
week; failure of which they will be charged
to court for stealing. The secretariat
should write the three of them
immediately to convey the decision of this
Committee to them. The evidence before
us showed that several letters had been
written to them on the need for them to
return the vehicles which they ignored,"
Olamilekan said.
Permanent Secretary, Ajoni, had told the
Committee that the ministry had made
spirited efforts to recover the vehicles but
Akunyili only returned one out of the two
in her possession, while Bilbis and
Ozodinobi held on to the ones in their
possession.
She disclosed that the vehicles in question
were for the National Telephony Project
and they belong to the Ministry. The
vehicles were said to have been attached
to the affected ex-officials and the
auditors discovered that they were
missing during auditor routine checks.
- THE WILL

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