Enugu Councillor drags Leader to Public Complaints Commission for alleged embezzlement

The Public Complaints Commission (PCC) in Anambra State has ordered the Leader of Oji-River Legislative Council, Enugu State, Mr James Tabansi, to pay a member, Mr Onyeka Mmadubuchi, all the allowances accruable to him during his purported suspension.
Mr Samben Nwosu, the Federal Commissioner for the commission, made the order at a Case Conference in Awka on Friday.
Nwosu made the order following a petition brought to the commission by Mmadubuchi, alleging that 14 of the 20-member council conspired to illegally suspend him and shared his allowance for seven months, amounting to N560,000.
Mmadubuchi said his suspension was illegal because there was no rule restraining members from entering the council chambers with phone.
He further alleged that the council adopted the rule after his phone was seized in order to penalise him.
The complainant said 14 members, including the leader, shared the allowances due to his ward, while five persons refused to partake in the illegal act.
He therefore prayed the commission to compel the leader to show evidence of where the rule was adopted before he was suspended and mandate the council to reverse his suspension and pay his allowances.
In her testimony, the Clerk of the council, Mrs Ifeoma Nebuife, said the complainant received his normal monthly salary but that N70, 000 allowance was not paid to him.
Nebuife said she paid Madubuchi’s first allowance back into the council’s IGR account but was stopped from returning the money in subsequent months by the leader.
She said she still went ahead to withdraw Mmadubuchi’s entitlement until he was suspended but could not return it to the council account.
In his defence, Tabansi said that the council conducted votes to adopt the rule after the complainant had been suspended.
He said he derived his powers from a draft of House of Representatives Rules but said the council had yet to domesticate the rule.
In his verdict, Nwosu said the complainant was suspended in error.
He said that the leader and members of the council should have paid the money back to government coffers.
He said that by defaulting to do so, the council members showed that they suspended the complainant in order to share his money.
Nwosu therefore directed that the complainant should be paid his full allowance because the suspension was done in error.
He said that it amounted to criminal offence to keep government money in private pocket.