The Lagos State House Assembly on Tuesday set up a committee to investigate the purchase of 820 buses by the administration of former governor Akinwunmi Ambode in the state.
The House said it was important to investigate the purchase of the 820 buses out of the 5,000 buses proposed by Mr Ambode for mass transit in the state, but which was purchased despite objection by the House of Assembly.
In a motion, Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti Osa 2), noted that at an Executive/Legislative parley at Golden Tulip in FESTAC in September 2017, Mr Ambode informed the lawmakers that 5,000 buses would be bought by the state government.
The lawmaker stated that the executive proposed to spend N17 billion to purchase the buses in the 2017 budget, but that this was not approved by the Assembly.
“In the 2018 and 2019 budgets, the state government proposed N24 billion and N7 billion respectively, but these were not approved.
“The state government still went ahead to import 820 buses at N7 billion, and out of that, 520 are still awaiting clearance at the ports,” he said.
The move by the lawmakers to probe Mr Ambode is likely to complicate matters for the former governor who is facing another probe.
Last week, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission searched his residences in Ikoyi and Epe as part of an ongoing corruption investigation.
Three weeks ago, a federal judge froze bank accounts containing N9.9 billion allegedly linked to the former governor.
Mr Ambode denied links to the bank accounts.
Inflated project
During Tuesday’s plenary, Mr Yishawu said the House was worried that 520 buses were still awaiting clearance from the bonded warehouse and the Port, waiting to be cleared and that they were purchased with taxpayers’ money without approval.
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