Farouk Lawan is being tried for corruption.
The embattled Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Education, Farouk Lawan (PDP-Bagwai/Shanono) was on Thursday replaced by Aminu Suleiman (PDP-Kano).
The Speaker of the house, Aminu Tambuwal, announced this on Thursday in Abuja.
No reason was given for the replacement of Mr. Lawan who had headed
the committee for more than 12 years, having been a ranking member
since1999.
The house suspended Mr. Lawan in 2012 in the wake of the $620 million alleged bribery between him and a Nigerian business man, Femi Otedola.
Mr. Lawan and Boniface Emenalo, the Secretary of the ad hoc committee
investigating the fuel subsidy regime, have since been arraigned before
a court for receiving the bribe.
The Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Rose Oko
(PDP-Cross River), took over as acting chairman after the suspension of
Lawan.
Meanwhile, the house has urged the Federal Government to make a supplementary budget for the Nigeria Police Force.
It also urged the government to begin the construction and expansion
of police barracks, to take care of the accommodation needs of the
personnel in Abuja.
The resolution followed a motion by Ini Udoka (PDP-Cross/Rivers) which was unanimously adopted.
Moving the motion, Mr. Udoka said most police barracks in Abuja had
been constructed before the relocation of the nation’s capital from
Lagos to Abuja.
He said the personnel in the Abuja Command lacked decent accommodation, unlike others in other parts of the country.
The lawmaker said some policemen posted to the Nigerian capital had
resorted to living in disused and abandoned construction sites owing to
high rents demanded by landlords for befitting apartments.
He expressed concern that more than 2,000 policemen in the Garki
Police Barrack and their household lived in the Abuja wing of the Garki
Police Barracks.
Mr. Udoka said the police headquarters and the environs now housed some policemen posted to Abuja.
He appealed to the House to support the motion as it would ameliorate
the hardship of the police in obtaining accommodation in the Abuja.
The speaker referred the motion to the Committee on Police Affairs for more legislative inputs.
In the meantime, the house mandated the committees on power, reform
of government institutions, finance and privatisation, to investigate
the ownership of power distribution companies.
This followed a motion by Patrick Ikhariale (PDP-Edo).
The motion is entitled: “Need to revise the zero budget allocation to
the distribution companies and generation companies of Power Holding
Company of Nigeria by the Executive in the 2013 budget.”
It was unanimously adopted after secondment by Chris Azugbogu (APGA-Anambra) and supported by Fort Dike (PDP-Anambra).
The committees are also to investigate the issue of monies allegedly
not being appropriated and report back to the house in one week.
