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By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

A senior official of the National Assembly, Ifeoma Ofili, has made damning allegations of widespread corruption among federal lawmakers, accusing them of bribery, manipulation of legislative reports, and diversion of staff entitlements.

Ofili, a director at the House of Representatives and former Clerk of the House Committee on Local Content, made the revelations during a retreat organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) for directors and committee clerks on June 27 in Abuja.

A video of her remarks at the event has since gone viral and is generating widespread outrage on social media.

In the video, Ofili alleged that lawmakers routinely collect bribes from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) during oversight visits, a practice she said undermines legislative integrity.

The director also accused lawmakers of manipulating reports of public hearings by hiring external consultants to write falsified reports, bypassing committee clerks who are legally and procedurally mandated to handle such documentation.

She said: “We are talking about oversight. How do you account for the fact that the flight ticket to go and oversight somebody was paid for that person by the agency. What are you coming to write?

“You go there, they tell you what to write, they give you money, they quarter you, they give you flight and the members will come and fight over the money that they give to them. They will not give the clerk. They will not give the committee assistance that they took along.

“But it’s not even the fact that they didn’t give the clerk. Now you are compelled to write a report of what you did not see, what did not happen, and you lie. Me as a Catholic, I will just go for confession first.

Efforts by The Guardian to get reactions from the House of Representatives’ spokesperson, Akin Rotimi, and his deputy, Philip Agbese, were unsuccessful.

Calls, SMS, and WhatsApp messages sent to both lawmakers were not responded to as of the time of filing this report

The director added that during a public hearing last year, she was informed by the committee that a consultant had been hired to write the report.

According to her, upon inquiry, she discovered the consultant had not even attended the hearing.

She said: “Then secondly, financing a public hearing. We did a public hearing last year and then the committee called me to tell me that a consultant was employed to write a report. And then I asked the consultant, were you at the public hearing? He said ‘no.’, So, what do you want to write. I, Ifeoma will give you material to write the report? I said no, it’s not going to happen. I will not work with you. I put my feet down and I told him I’m not going to work with you.

“And I sat down because they are looking at us as if we do not have capacity. Me, I’m just two steps out of National Assembly for retirement. So right now, my mother says she’s not dancing so that people will give her money, It is so that they will see me. So I will say what I want to say. I sat down and I did a proper report of that public hearing and I took it to the chairman.

“I said, this is the report, and they were looking at me like, you mean it. I said, yes. ‘Oh no, you have to change that. I said no, this is what happened.’ If you want to change it, you can now go ahead and change it, but the original report is in my system. I don’t use secretaries. I type my report myself. So if they want to change it, they should go ahead and change it, I am waiting,” she added.

Ofili questioned the sincerity of lawmakers’ public posturing, particularly during high-profile investigations into government agencies.

She alleged that while legislators often appear firm on camera when addressing financial misconduct in MDAs, many of those probes are quietly compromised behind closed doors.

The director noted that funds earmarked for staff welfare including allowances for training, healthcare, and sports are frequently lumped into ambiguous budget lines and diverted by lawmakers for personal use.

Her words: “Then we are talking about punishing MDAs. They will come on TV and they will say, this erring MDA did this. All the atrocities that are being committed in the National Assembly, who punished them?,”

“We don’t follow the budget process the way it is. They will budget money for… for instance, staff budget, money for training, money for clinics, money for sports, money for books, money, they collapse it.

It is in the National Assembly we are still hearing about “collapse.’ Now, allowances that are budgeted for National Assembly staff is collapsed. So, we as citizens, because we are still citizens, first, before we became National Assembly staff and then you have no power to even go and hold a press conference because we have sworn to oath of silence. So I can’t even tell the world how I feel.

“Allowances that are constitutional, even, put it in the constitution this time, statutory allocation to the National Assembly staff, they collapsed it till now.”

Ofili painted a grim picture of the plight of National Assembly staff, particularly retirees, who she said are frequently abandoned and left without pay for years after leaving service.

She noted that some retired staff wait one to two years before receiving their retirement benefits.

She said many appear abandoned and destitute, with some former colleagues calling to beg for money to buy fuel.

According to her, it is not uncommon to see them standing at the entrance of the National Assembly, unable to afford the cost of fueling their cars.

The official stated: “So apart from what the constitution says, they themselves (lawmakers) who is looking at the one they (lawmakers) are collapsing and chopping. They (lawmakers) chop their own, they chop our own”.

“Then secondly, financing a public hearing. We did a public hearing last year and then the committee called me to tell me that a consultant was employed to write a report. And then I asked the consultant, were you at the public hearing? He said ‘no.’, So, what do you want to write. I, Ifeoma will give you material to write the report? I said no, it’s not going to happen. I will not work with you. I put my feet down and I told him I’m not going to work with you.

“And I sat down because they are looking at us as if we do not have capacity. Me, I’m just two steps out of National Assembly for retirement. So right now, my mother says she’s not dancing so that people will give her money, It is so that they will see me. So I will say what I want to say. I sat down and I did a proper report of that public hearing and I took it to the chairman.

“I said, this is the report, and they were looking at me like, you mean it. I said, yes. ‘Oh no, you have to change that. I said no, this is what happened.’ If you want to change it, you can now go ahead and change it, but the original report is in my system. I don’t use secretaries. I type my report myself. So if they want to change it, they should go ahead and change it, I am waiting,”.

Guardian