Jonathan Not For Probe— Bayelsa Speaker

Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Mr Werenipre Seibarugu Monday said Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was not the target of a probe of contracts awarded under his tenure as governor.
Seibarugu disclosed this in Yenagoa at the House's briefing for the 16 commissioner-nominees whose screening by the House ended on Aug 22. "We are not probing the Vice President; we are only looking at contractors who did not perform.
``Even the V-P himself is not happy about this development; as such he has given us permission to investigate the various contracts during his tenure,'' he added.
The speaker's clarification followed rumours in some quarters that the lawmakers might have decided to probe the administration of Jonathan as governor of Bayelsa State.
This was against the backdrop of the discovery of many failed contracts in the state.
Seibarugu said the House took it upon itself as a matter of urgent public interest  to know what happened to the contracts for the 31 mega watts gas turbine at Imiringi.
He also said the Assembly was interested in finding out about the contract for the electronic scoreboard at the Yenagoa sports complex.
The Bayelsa Assembly had last week instituted an inquest into the N150 million allocation for the purchase of law books in the judiciary.
He said the House was worried that many contractors had absconded after collecting money from government for some projects.
The speaker, while admonishing the commissioner-nominees to be of good conduct, expressed regret that many people had used the good intentions of the V-P during his tenure as governor to exploit the state.
He charged them to carry everyone along and to ensure even distribution of projects and government services to all crannies of the state.
Also speaking, the Deputy Speaker, Mr Nestor Binabo, charged the nominees to be above board in their dealings as representatives.
The House also received a letter from Governor Timipre Sylva requesting the lawmakers to consider the nomination of four more persons as commissioners.
Three of them were those who had been sent out by the lawmakers on the first day of the four-day screening exercise for not providing the relevant documents.