Rep Gets N1bn for Constituency Projects, Sells Materials To Constituents

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has concluded plans to investigate a member of the House of Representatives, Hon Lazarus Ogbee over an alleged diversion of projects amounting to about N1 billion in the last four years.

Ogbee, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was in 2015 elected to represent lkwo/Ezza South federal constituency of Ebonyi state. He is currently serving a second tenure in the green chamber.

Checks revealed that members of the House of Representatives from each state are entitled to approximately N1 billion as Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIP) in the annual budget.

However, the lawmakers do not have access to equal worth of projects, as some states have as many as 24 members while in some states, there are as few as six members.

Members from Kano and Lagos states have lowest rate of ZIP, whch is less N100 million projects, while members from states like Ebonyi, Ekiti, Bayelsa and Gombe, have the highest rate, due to the number of federal constituencies per states.

A National Assembly source revealed that about N100 billion is earmarked for senators and House of Representatives members for ZIP in the budget. Projects worth about 60 per cent of this of this amount is allocated to members of the House while senators share projects worth 40 per cent.

Acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu last week received a petition to probe an alleged diversion of ZIP by Hon Ogbee. The petition, according to Leadership source, has been transmitted to the investigation department of the commission.