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There was mild drama at the House of Representatives, yesterday, as members of the Committee on Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) clashed while interrogating Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouq, with a member walking out alleging she was ‘harassed.”
Farouq who appeared before the committee to defend the 2021budget proposal, had given an overview of the performance of the 2020 budget performance, but failed to summit some critical documents required by some members.
Trouble however stated when member representing Andoni/ Opobo /Nkoro Federal Constituency of Rivers State, Awaji-Inombek Abiante, moved a motion for the rescheduling of the budget defence, arguing that the minister could not provide the committee with all the necessary documents to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the ministry in 2020 fiscal year.
“The document before us, she has admitted are not comprehensive. Since there are not before parliament, chairman, I move that we step down the consideration of this budget of 2021 until those documents have been presented to us,” he said.
However, chairman of the committee, Mohammed Jega, overruled him, saying the committee would continue with the exercise, while Farouq would be requested to provide all the relevant documents at a later date.
“Lets not derail from the objective of this budget defence I am sure they have submitted some details, maybe you have not looked at it. But it is there. We may request them to submit additional details. When we go for oversight, we will be able to establish what needs to be done and what we need to do,” he said.
Abiante, however, protested that it was procedurally wrong for the chairman to overrule him,demanding that his motion be subjected to vote.
As the argument between Jega and Abiante was going on, Fatuhu Muhammed, member representing Daura /Sandamu /Maidua Federal Constituency of Kastina State, alleged that the minister was being harassed.
“If you are having any issue with this ministry, this is not the right way to approach it. We are here for budget defence. You can see what happened after the end of #EndSARS. Warehouses were broken and foods were there. People were criticising the minister that she did not share anything. Why are we harassing her? This is harassment,” he said.
However, his comments did not go down well with other members, as they countered him in unison, demanding that he withdrew the statement.
Muhammed, rather than withdraw the allegation, gathered his documents and left the venue maintaining his position that the minister was harassed.
Farouq, however, said her ministry had not received any external funding apart from its budgetary allocations and that palliatives were distributed to all states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), except Rivers State.
“We handed over these palliatives to all state governors for onward distribution to the poor and the vulnerable. In FCT, we handed over to the two ministers. It is only Rivers State that has not collected their own share. It is still there waiting for them,” Farouq said.
