Chinelo Obogo
The Lagos State House of Assembly, yesterday, threatened to issue a warrant of arrest on the former governor, Akinwunmi Ambode and four others who served under him as commissioners.
This decision followed two preliminary reports presented by two different ad-hoc committees set up by the House to investigate the amount spent on acquiring 820 buses purchased by Ambode and to appraise the 2019 mid year budget.
The former commissioners involved include, Kazeem Adeniji (Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice), Olusegun Banjo (Commissioner for Budget), Akinyemi Ashade (Commissioner for Finance) and Wale Oluwo (Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources).
Presenting the preliminary report of a 9-man ad-hoc committee to probe the 820 buses purchased by the former governor, Chairman of the committee, Fatai Mojeed said that it was discovered that due process were not followed in the purchase of the busses. Mojeed added that the former governor used the refund of the Paris Club for the purchase of the busses without the approval of the House. 
“He did not inform the House before commencing the purchase of the buses. Over N48 billion was spent for the purchase of the busses and N22 billion were spent on import duties. 520 of the buses are still at the seaport,” Mojeed said.
Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, noted that the issue was beyond issue of arrest warrant, “because when this house invite people and they refused to show up, it’s like setting a bad precedence for others coming behind.
“The clerk should write them including the ex-governor, Akinwunmi Ambode and if they refuse, we will do newspaper publications and after that we will issue a warrant of arrest,” Obasa added.