Probe Fashola Publicly, Lagos Assembly Urged

LAGOS April 19, (THEWILL) - Sequel to a 7-man committee it set up last week to investigate allegations of financial misappropriations and fraud made by a group called ‘The True Face of Lagos’ against Lagos State Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), the Lagos State House of Assembly has been asked to conduct a public hearing into the allegations.

The request to adopt a public hearing in the investigation was contained in a new letter the group addressed to Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, urging the leadership of the Assembly not to bow to extraneous pressures and public factors at the expense of overriding public interest.

Coordinator of the group, Mr. Adeshina Adebayo endorsed the three-page letter in which the group appealed to the Speaker and members of the Assembly not to jettison public hearing for in-camera investigation, which it said would shut out the generality of Lagosians who are the direct victims of the allegations.

In the letter titled "Please, Let the Probe Panel on Corruption Allegations against Governor Fashola Sit Publicly" and dated April 19, 2010, the group tasked the House to conduct an open, just, fair and transparent hearing within the purview democratic values of the international best practices of public investigation.

The letter read in part: "The issue is a public issue. To this fundamental extent, it should not be retrieved from public view at its most critical stage of investigation, the outcome of which would in the final analysis determine the culpability or innocence of the main dramatis personae of this very serious matter.  

"It would be most unfair to Lagosians, the principal characters alleged, and even The True Face of Lagos (TFL), which is alleging, that all that shall be heard is verdict of the panel’s findings without giving the general public the benefit of monitoring the process of investigation, which will enhance the credibility of the panel.

"We want to believe that the House is not interested in shielding any person from justice nor will want to treat any person as a sacred cow in this matter. In the absence of the probable scenarios, we admonish the House to give the Lagosians the opportunity of not just hearing the outcome, but seeing the process.

"We encourage you to be open, just, fair, transparent, and firm always operating, however, within the purview of constitutionality and the most salient democratic values of international best practices of public investigation," the letter stated.

The House has said the governor was not being targeted with the probe.