In an ongoing scandal and money laundering act being perpetrated by the Lagos State House of Assembly, lawmakers in the state have been looting N47.5m per quarter from the state’s treasury for media influencers.
The money, according to documents sighted by SaharaReporters, was paid to a media company to help publicise the activities of the House.
In the document, it could be seen that there was no procurement process approval attached or mentioned in the request for approval.
The money was released after approval by Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa.
It was gathered that the release of the money for Bloggers Media has been in effect since 2017 and continued till 2018.
It was gathered that lawmakers hide under the guise of the payment to launder funds from the state coffers and divert same for personal usage.
According to the document sighted by SaharaReporters, the media outfit was handpicked without any procurement process with the Speaker directed to approve the release of the money.
“Please be informed of the desire of the Assembly to publicise its activities and achievements through print and electronic media for the second quarter of the year 2018.
“Sequel to the Ministerial Tenders Board Meeting held on Thursday, June 21, 2018, the board recommended Messrs Bloggers Media at the cost of N45,700,000 (Forty-five million, seven hundred thousand naira only) on single source selection based on commendable satisfactory performance in the year 2017.
“In line with the recommendation of the Ministerial Tenders Board Meeting, kindly consider and give approval on the notification of award in favour of Messrs Bloggers Media for N45,700,000 (Forty-five million, seven hundred thousand naira only) for the project to cover second quarter of the year 2018. The payment pattern is to reflect 60% advance payment and 40% balance after acceptable completing of the contract,” the letter to the Lagos Assembly Speaker reads.
During checks by our correspondent, it was discovered that Bloggers Media was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission on January 4, 2016 with registration number RC: 2384816.
However, further checks showed that the address submitted to the CAC, 3B, Alade, Off Alade Avenue, does not exist in Lagos.
The organisation seemed not to be existent as there was no digital traces of it after multiple checks on various search engines.
As at the time of filing this report, the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Tolani Abati, could not be reached for comments.
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