
The House of Representatives has been besieged by several lobbyists of several ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government facing probe.
The lobbyists make frantic efforts to either avert investigations into their activities by standing committees of the House, or seek to influence members of the committees.
The MDAs also seek to sideline relevant standing committees and lobby to be probed by ad-hoc committees whom they believed will be headed by a friendly member.
An aggrieved committee member, whose committee was neglected for an ad-hoc committee in an ongoing probe ,noted that if the practice is not checked ,it will affect the credibility of the 8th Assembly.
“The lobbying is become too much and giving rise to allegations of financial inducements. That is why sometimes a committee that has been blowing hot, and seemingly harassing the people, suddenly becomes friendly, and there would be nothing serious in the report.”
“There have also been some big investigations, which were making front page news during the hearings, but we would never see the report, and nobody is asking any questions. After hearings, it has now become usual practice for heads of these agencies to wait to see the committee chairman, which should not be so,” he said.
Another Lawmaker who doesn’t want to be named, noted that where ‘friendly’ lawmakers are enlisted on ad-hoc committees, they work to ensure that the members do not come on too hard on the agencies.
Speaking on the lobbying to stop probes, the lawmaker cited the most recent case of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, where the lawmakers at plenary on Thursday, had voted to reject a motion into the probe of the agency’s activities.