The report of the House of Representatives investigation into the $620,000 bribery allegation involving a senior member of the House, Mr. Farouk Lawan, and oil businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola, is still not out seven months after.
The House had in May, 2012 mandated its Committee on Ethics and Privileges to investigate the matter and produce a report within 21 days.
Lawmakers will proceed on another holiday for the Christmas/New Year on Thursday this week and findings by The PUNCH indicate that it is unlikely that the report will be available this year.
It was gathered on Sunday that the report was still "holed up" at the level of the Committee on Ethics and Privileges.
"That report is not before the House as we speak. The normal thing is that if a committee is assigned a duty, it will lay its report before the House in plenary.
"Before this is done, the Committee on Rules and Business is notified and this committee will schedule it for presentation.
"This has not happened; it means if there is any report at all, it is still with the investigating committee (Ethics and Privileges)," a lawmaker told our correspondent on Sunday.
The development came amid speculations that there were attempts to allow the bribery allegation to "die a natural death."
One source claimed that some members were increasingly arguing that the matter was a criminal case that should have been done with by security agencies, and "not necessarily a House matter."
The source, who spoke to our correspondent said, "It is a criminal matter, really. The police investigated the allegation, where is their report?
"Why have they been unable to arraign Farouk Lawan or anybody else? What are they waiting for?
"The House came in because it wanted to know the level of involvement of a member; it is not the House that will prosecute if any case is established, it is the police."
Members of the ethics committee on Monday chose to be silent on what has become of the investigation, preferring to refer all inquiries to the Chairman of the committee, Mr. Gambo Musa.
However, Musa neither answered his calls nor responded to any of the four text messages our correspondent sent to him on the matter.
In November, after The PUNCH mounted pressure on Musa, he merely said, "I don’t want to say anything on that issue now. "This is not the right time."
The Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Victor Ogene, while dismissing the speculation that the legislature was plotting to sweep the matter under the carpet, argued that the Lawan/Otedola investigation was like any other assignment given to a committee.
He said that there were "volumes of other committee reports" awaiting scheduling before the House.
"It is like any other report, it will be taken at the appropriate time; there are many other reports pending. Nobody is hiding anything", Ogene added.
It was the same Ogene, who announced in October that the Musa panel would lay the report as "soon as the House resumes from the Sallah break."
The House resumed from the Sallah break on November 6 and it is set for another break this week.
When contacted, House Deputy Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, also denied that the report would be swept under the carpet.
"Where did that idea come from? This is a parliament and there are procedures when a committee is handling an investigation.
"There is nothing to speculate about; if the report is ready, they will lay it", he said.
Otedola had claimed to have given Lawan the $620,000 bribe in the wake of the April fuel subsidy probe by the House.
Lawan had headed the adhoc committee mandated to conduct the probe.
Although Lawan admitted taking the money, he too had claimed that he did so to expose Otedola as a bribe giver.
