N30m Bribery Scandal: Sports Minister Distances Self

[caption id="attachment_20372" align="alignnone" width="660"]Solomon Dalung, Sports Minister[/caption]

Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Barrister Solomon Dalung has denied reports linking him with N30m bribery allegation scandal.

Dalung in a statement made available to this medium on Wednesday denied knowledge of the allegation, saying that they are coming to him “as a surprise”.

The Minister further challenged the fabricators of the report to serve him a copy of the petition adding that Nigerians deserve to know the truth.

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The statement reads: “I have never been invited by the said National Assembly Committee and had never received any invitation from the Committee in respect of the allegations published. I am even not aware of the said transactions; I even don’t know the contractor involved or even the company.

“I did not mandate anybody to collect anything from anybody and so not in the position to defend it. The allegation is coming to me as a surprise because before proceeding on medical vacation, I cannot remember receiving such petition.

“Therefore, I challenge those fabricating the story to also tell Nigerians whether I was given the copy of the petition?

“If the petitioner did not avail me the copy, I have the right to be served with a copy before the purported seven invitations by NASS.

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“Or was the NASS expecting me to come before they will level the allegations and expect reply?

Recall that the House of Representatives committee on public petitions on Monday threatened to order the arrest the Minister for failing to appear before the committee after he had been invited to answer questions over a N30 billion bribery allegation leveled against him by a contractor in his ministry.

Others invited alongside the minister were the permanent secretary and the director of procurement in the ministry.

Furious by their refusal to honour the invitation of the committee, the chairman, Nkem Abonta, directed the clerk to prepare a bench warrant for Mr. Dalung and the two others, but his colleagues prevailed that they be allowed till May 30.

A group, Kingdom Human Rights Foundation, had in a petition alleged that their client, Solbec Ltd., was awarded a contract, via a letter dated November 27, by the then Ministry of Youth Development (Now Federal Ministry of Sports) for the construction of a youth development centre in Oyo State.

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