Rep dares NAFDAC DG to name lawmakers who demanded bribe from her

Chike Okafor, chairman, house of representatives committee on healthcare services, has challenged Mojishola Adeyeye, director-general of National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), to name the members of the committee who demanded bribe from her.

Adeyeye had alleged that the committee  asked her for bribe in the form of “money for welfare” when they visited her in December, 2017.

But reacting in an interview with OrderPaperNG , Okafor dismissed the allegation, saying ” it was unfortunate that some lousy employees of government would want to throw dirt at the parliament.”

Okafor also accused the NAFDAC DG of raising the allegation in a bid to “divert attention from alleged misappropriation of funds and underhand dealings in the agency under her watch”.

He said during the oversight, members of the house saw some issues of concern which were then dealt with.

“I challenge the media to ask her which member of the committee approached her for the welfare, and which welfare is she talking about because our welfare is taken care of by the national assembly and no government agency takes care of our welfare,” he said.

“The issue of NAFDAC and the director general, this is the first time I’m speaking to any media outfit on the matter for the simple reason that I feel the job of the committee on healthcare services should rather speak for itself in respect to oversight and all that.

“In November ending 2017, the house had adjourned plenary for two weeks to enable committees carry out oversight functions on various agencies.

“So we made a call to our agencies including NAFDAC. And then NAFDAC had a DG by name Professor Ademola and but shortly after NAFDAC got a new DG, Mrs. Mojisola and I got a call from one of the staff of the agency who informed me that the new DG would like to meet with me.

“So immediately, I convened a meeting of very eminent members like Rita Orji, Nicholas Ossai, Beni Lar and others because that was her first meeting with the committee.

“In the course of the meeting, she told us she was not going to be around but we told her she didn’t need to be around that we were fine with the acting DG and more over we were going to speak to the records so her absence didn’t matter.

“And we ended up going for that oversight and members saw some issues of concern and we then rescheduled to come back a second time. And in the second visit she was around and we tackled those issues out and we left.”

He said the house had no reason to ask Adeyeye for support since provisions have been made to fund oversight functions.

According to him, “the truth is that nobody asked her for anything and she didn’t give anyone money and nobody would ask her for anything.

“On the issue of funding for oversight, the house has set aside some funds for such activities so why should we request for such support from her like logistics and other support?” he asked.

“We didn’t do that and that meeting we had with her in her office was the last meeting we had with her, until two weeks ago when we invited her to appear before the committee to defend the agency’s 2019 budget.

“Of course she did come and made a presentation before the committee and some members of the committee raised concerns on some issues and we took her up on the issues.

“And her responses were not satisfactory so we took a decision that we would invite her again and the next day she ran to the TV to say all those things she said.

“Well the parliament is in the eye of the storm because this is not the first time an agency of government would make such wild allegations against the parliament. It would not deter us from doing our work.”