Falana,
a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said it was illegal for former governors,
who have been placed on life pension in their states, to earn salaries and
allowances in the National Assembly.
He
also stated that the lawmakers ought not to have been entitled to the payment
of their full salaries and allowances for failing to sit for the mandatory 181
days before going on a seven-month recess.
The
Lagos lawyer, in a lecture he yesterday delivered as the investiture of Mr.
Dele Ojogbede as President of Rotary Club, Ikoyi in Lagos, counselled the
Federal Government on what to do with those undermining the anti-corruption
war.
He
also commented on the allegations of corruption against the Chief of Army Staff
(COAS), Gen. Tukur Buratai, Internal Affairs Minister Abdulrahman Dambazzau and
Comptroller-General of Prisons Ahmed Jafaru, as well as the alleged budget
padding in the Greeen Chamber.
On
ex-governors in the Senate, Falana 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.”
According
to the lawyer, none of the 469 lawmakers in the National Assembly had
justification for the emoluments they collected in the first legislative year
under the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration.
His
words: “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.
The
Senate was actually shut down on a number of occasions to enable the Senate
President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to attend the proceedings of the Code of Conduct
Tribunal (CCT) where he is standing trial for false declaration of assets. And
in solidarity with him, a number of senators abandoned their duties to
accompany him to the tribunal.
“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 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
said the budget padding row rocking the leadership of the House of
Representatives should not be allowed to be treated as the lower chamber’s
internal affair but be investigated and offenders sanctioned.
Source: The
Nation
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