Ex-FG Official Admits Giving Lawmakers N50m Bribe

Benjamin Ogunbodede, a professor and former director of Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, has said that he gave N50 million to some members of the National Assembly.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the embattled former director is standing trial before a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan over alleged N177 million hazard allowance fraud.Testifying before Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel, Mr. Ogunbodede named one Gbenga Makanjuola, the then house committee chairman on agriculture, as one of the recipients of the N50 million gratifications.Mr. Makanjuola could not be immediately reached.The former director, standing trial with two others, however, refused to mention names of other members of the committee, Senate members and officials of the Ministry of Finance who received the N50 million gratifications.Mr. Ogunbodede stated that the sum served as a thank you gesture to the NASS members and others who facilitated the quick release of N606 million, which was the schools grant from the Federal Government.Makanjuola was one of the House of Representative members from the South-West on the committee who was paid the gratification, the ex-director said.He further confessed that the school did not actually raise fund from philanthropists contrary to his earlier testimony in court.
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