Sagay: Sponsor of amnesty bill devoid of morality, should be suspended

Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption chairman, Professor Itse Sagay ( SAN ), has lambasted the sponsor of the bill seeking amnesty for looters.

He said the sponsor of such a bill lacked total morality and deserves not only sharp rebuke but also sanctions.

A memeber of the House of the House of Representatives, Linus Okorie, had during the plenary of the lawmakers during the week proposed a bill which seeks to grant amnesty to self – confessed looters.

However, responding to the development in a statement on Wednesday, Sagay decended on the Reps member for having the effrontery to sponsor such an ignominious bill.

He said, “Now what shall we do with Linus Okorie ? I propose that the House of Representatives should regard Linus’s bill to be so impertinent and scandalous as to earn him a suspension from the House, for the rest of the 8th session, i. e., until July 2019 . That should serve notice that Nigeria will no longer tolerate such brazen impunity and corruption or its promotion thereof.

“That a Nigerian legislator (a lawmaker ) can have the effrontery to promote a bill which if enacted into law, will enable looters of our treasury and national patrimony to keep the loot, if only they can acknowledge it as looted, provided they undertake to spend it in Nigeria , is breathtaking.

“In summary, what Mr. Okorie is encouraging is free plundering of state funds without consequences . Simply put, it is the legitimating of treasury plundering. It is clear that if such a bill becomes law , the anti – corruption war is doomed.

“How do we punish this man for his total lack of morality , and his heedless, headlong promotion of looting without adverse consequences? I think people who come up with such shocking assaults on our common morality and sense of decency deserve a sharp rebuke coupled with sanctions.”

According to Sagay, despite the fact that the 8th Assembly had been accused of frustrating the anti – corruption war, the recent bill by the lawmaker would be the nadir of legislative rascality.

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“If the bill was passed into law, armed robbers, kidnapers, extortionists, thieves, money launderers, embezzlers and other criminals would line up before the Attorney- General with applications compelling him to grant them amnesty and never ever again to question its source, he said.”

He added, “Should a legislator, a ranking public officer, be seen committing a breach of the constitution, which at the same time constitutes assault on our sensibilities with relish?”

This is not the first time that Sagay will be using strong words to describe members of the legislature; he had only recently controversially described the Senate as being childish and irresponsible for asking President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Ibrahim Magu.

By Ebere Ndukwu . . .

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