419 LAWMAKERS: I HAVE ENOUGH EVIDENCE - SENATOR

Senator Nuhu Aliyu

Senator Nuhu Aliyu of the Nigerian Senate, who chose friendship over loyalty to the constitution of his country by backing down from naming alleged fraudsters in Nigeria’s federal legislature, may again have started stoking the same controversy. He is insisting that he has enough background facts on his colleagues to back up his attempt at fishing out fraudsters lurking in the august law making body.

Senator Aliyu a former sleuth with the Nigerian Police who chairs the country’s Senate Committee on Security and Intelligence shocked everyone when he made a u-turn saying he would not give effect to his earlier threat to name alleged fraudsters. He confessed on the floors of the Senate that he has experienced an epiphany: Legal constraint.

Aliyu had said in a letter of apology to the Senate that he was legally constrained to finger point any of his colleagues since no court of competent jurisdiction has ever pronounced them guilty.

But in an interview with Pointblanknews.com, Senator Aliyu said that “I served the Nigerian police for 35 years and I was in Charge of the Criminal Intelligence Bureau and I was also in charge of the INTERPOL and I traveled far and wide. In each country I visited, the question was on 419 in Nigeria and when I was in charge of the CID in Alagbon, I met a lot of people against whom there were complains. If I made any statement, it is a statement of fact.”

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Aliyu who has been roundly criticized for using the hallowed chambers of the Nigerian Senate to declare his preference for personal ties over allegiance to the constitution which he swore to defend, further said: “I have enough evidence to arrive at my conclusion. Take that from me.”

According to him, “sometimes policemen are so sure of the outcome of their investigation that when they go to court, for some reasons the criminals are not convicted and because of that you cannot call such persons criminals otherwise you will be made to pay and I don’t have a lot of money to pay anyone now.”

Going somber and repentant for acting on impulse in threatening to expose the so called 419ners in the National Assembly, he said “if you are a smart fraudster, so long as you have not been convicted, you are not a criminal and if anyone make an allegation, no matter the evidence, if he is not found wanting, he cannot be a criminal.”

Further becoming penitent, Senator Aliyu said “I can assure you that I will never in my life make any doubtful or controversial statement again. The law forbids me from making such allegations and I will continue to obey the law of the land.”