Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, first daughter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo continually hugs newspaper headlines now and again thanks to her numerous scandals

By Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja

At her office in the National Assembly Complex on 27 March,

• Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello

Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, Chairman, Senate Committe on Health, left a stern instruction: “Senate security, nobody should come into my office,” she told the security officers. The instruction was issued to roll back journalists, who were sniffing for updates on the N300million Christmas bonus scandal in the Ministry of Health.

The order may have kept journalists away from her office, but it has failed to keep Iyabo out of the headlines, especially those announcing scandals.

The latest broke  Wednesday last week, when the House of Representatives panel probing contracts in the power sector linked the senator to a contract scandal via M.Schneider Energy Nigeria, the company awarded a N4.1billion contract for the construction of the 5MVA Borokiri sub-station and its three components in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The contract was awarded by the Obasanjo administration in 2006, as part of the National Integrated Power Projects scheme. According to the panel, M.Schneider failed to execute the contract despite collecting 5 per cent of the contract cost. When the panel visited last Wednesday, it found no staff of the company on site and discovered that the site was yet to be cleared.

Ndudi Elumelu, Chairman, House Committee on Power and Steel, said: “But you can all see; there is nothing on this site. The contractor is not here and we don’t even know what is happening here. It is so sad; so sad that Nigerians will continue to suffer this way.”

Iyabo, who travelled to Cuba with other members of the Senate Committee on Education  Wednesday last week, is likely to spend part of her stay in Cuba designing an appropriate response to the latest injury to her public profile.

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