Fresh crises have continued to trail the ongoing investigative public hearing on the alleged irregularities surrounding the multi-billion
naira Centenary City project initiated by the last administration.
At the Friday’s sitting, Anyim Pius Anyim, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) who publicly accused Herman Hembe,
chairman, House Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), of having “deep seated personal
interest and bias into his matter and so
is not in a position to guarantee fair hearing to myself and the Centenary City PLC and indeed the entire subject matter.
“Accordingly, I demand that Mr. Chairman (Hembe) should disqualify himself from sitting in this committee. Mr Chairman, you can handover
to the Vice Chairman and excuse us so that the hearing can proceed,” Anyim, a former chairman of the National Assembly and Senate President
demanded.
Anyim, who conceived the Centenary City project, also accused Hembe of having personal motives, expressed suspicion on Hembe’s threat to
continue with the hearing, in the bid to “pursue personal vendetta”, following his refusal to sack the former Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Aruma Otteh, who accused
Hembe of “demanding bribe from her.
“Mr. Chairman, we only discovered your game plan for all postponement when you started sending messages to the Managing Director to come and
see you privately.
“It was after all your efforts to get the Managing Director to come and see you privately failed that you confirmed this date. I want you to know that nobody will see you privately rather we are ready for the hearing,” Anyim said.
President Goodluck Jonathan via a letter titled: Re: Centenary celebration programmes and funding strategies,” with Ref. No.
PRES/81/SGF/.2/701, dated 2nd October, 2012 and signed by Matt Aikhionbare, senior special assistant to the President (Admin), conveyed his approval for paragraph 8(I, ii & iii) of the SGF proposal.
According to the SGF document with Ref. No: SGF.32/S.47, President Jonathan approved that “the Centenary projects and activities be wholly driven by the private sector; that the Land Swap model of Land Use in FCT be adopted for the development of the Centenary City and that the Centenary celebration plans and activities be brought to
Council for members’ input and advice.”
President Jonathan however declined comment on paragraph 7, which stated that “the Land Swap arrangement is discussed along terms that
the fraction due to FCT will be invested by the developer to undertake the above projects (Presidential archives and Military Arcade) which
is estimated at about N12 billion at no other cost to Government.”
The Committee further observed that two companies with share capital of 10,000 shares each jointly owned by Boma Ozobia and Paul Oki, were
the core investors in the Centenary City Plc.
Meanwhile, the former FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, also declined to speak on any issue relating to the Centenary City project, as he
aligned with the presentation of the incumbent FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello.
When pressured to take the oath, Mohammed who accused the Committee of impinging on his privilege, chided the Committee for being
“childishness” and accusation and counter-accusation among the Committee members.
Mohammed who maintained hard stance not to make any comment on the investigation, told the Chairman of the Committee “do your worst, take
me to court…my privilege is impinged due to your show of childishness.”
When confronted to justify the selection process of the investor, Odenigwe Michaels, Managing Director of Centenary City Plc, explained
the OSGF invited the investors during an investment forum, adding that “people were invited to be part of the entire object. Investors brought together to fund the project through the land swap.
In his presentation, Olukunle Bamgbose, Permanent Secretary in the office of Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) (Political and Economic Affairs), disclosed that there was no
record of the three advertorial purportedly placed by the former SGF on the Centenary City Project.
On her part, Ayo Omidiran (APC-Osun) flayed the FCT administration for failing to adhere strictly on the directive of the former President.
Speaking earlier, Herman Hembe, chairman House Committee on FCT who responded to Anyim’s submission, insisted on carrying out the
investigation as assigned by the House.
“Mr. former Senate President, Senator Pius Anyim, we invited you here for the public hearing. And like I said in one forum and I remember it categorically, that if I had sent messages, messages are beautiful
things, they are basically on phones and they remain there. Such a person is free to bring those kinds of documents forward and say this is how Hon. Hembe has contacted me or whatever.
“My bottom line is this, thank you for your contributions, we have excused you at the beginning of this programme, the excuse is still open and if you want to take the option of the excuse as a former
presiding officer of the Senate, you are free. On the strength of that, my ruling here is that I’m going to preside over this public hearing and this public hearing will continue,” Hembe said.
To this end, the Committee directed the Managing Director of Centenary City Plc to provide copies of the advertisements
