Falana says Buhari’s govt is condoning corruption

Femi Falana, has thrown open alleged corrupt practices the Muhammadu Buhari administration has been condoning.

Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and activist, highlighted these offences during a lecture he delivered at the investiture of Mr. Dele Ojogbede as President of Rotary Club, Ikoyi in Lagos.

According to him, these offences and practices undermines the anti-corruption war of the Buhari-led, All Progressives Congress (APC), Federal Government.

The Lagos lawyer, picking on what he described as an aberration involving ex-governors in the Senate said, “It is high time the Federal Government stopped the payment of salaries and allowances to former governors who are in the Senate. Since they are on pension for life, it is illegal to continue to pay them salaries and allowances at the same time.”

Falana argued, that “The APC-led National Assembly has also engaged in collecting jumbo emoluments for services not rendered to the nation.

“Whereas Section 63 of the Constitution provides that the Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for not less than 181 days in a year, Section 68 thereof states that any legislator who fails to attend the proceedings of the Senate for less than one third of the required number of days shall automatically lose his or her seat.

“For the first legislative year which ended on June 9, the Seventh session of the National Assembly did not meet the constitutional requirement. Specifically, due to incessant recesses, the House of Representatives sat for only 104 days while the Senate sat for 96 days. This means that the Senate sat for barely 50 per cent of the required sitting period.

“Indeed, some of the senators who had to attend criminal courts where they are standing trial for corrupt practices did not seat for up to 70 days throughout the legislative year.

According to him, the Senate shut down on a number of occasions to enable Senate President Bukola Saraki attend the proceedings of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), where he is standing trial for false declaration of assets.

Read also: Buhari’s nepotism, the worst in African history, Junaid Mohammed says

“Since the labour policy of “no work no pay” is applicable to all public officers the legislators ought not to have been paid when they did not perform any legislative duty.

“In other words, having failed to sit for the mandatory period of 181 days the legislators were not entitled to payment of full salaries and allowances for the whole legislative year.

“Having been paid full emoluments when they failed to sit for the required number of days, the legislators ought to refund some money to the treasury.

“In the circumstance, the Accountant-General of the Federation should ensure that the legislators are made to refund the money collected for the number of days they failed to sit in the National Assembly,” he opined.

He also spoke on allegations that the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Gen. Tukur Buratai acquired properties worth $1.5 billion, adding that “the CCB should proceed to investigate and confirm that the properties were legitimately acquired from the income of the general.

“This investigation should be speedily and transparently conducted to assure Nigerians that there are no sacred cows in the prosecution of the war against corruption.”

While he recommended that the prison chief who is yet to deny falsifying his age be sacked like the two judges sacked for age falsification, he also said that Internal Affairs Minister Abdulrahman Dambazau should also be investigated for his role as the Chief of Army Staff within the period under investigation of arms procurement in the miliatry.

And calling for the dismissal of those involved in the 2016 Budget padding, Falana added that the alleged budget padding in the Green Chamber must not be swept under the carpet.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

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