The wave of corruption and impunity in the national assembly is escalating
\ndespite President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti corruption war as the leadership
\nand management are currently embroiled in fresh a N10billion scandal.<\/p>\n
The N10 billion meant for payment of Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) and
\nseverance benefits for hundreds of legislative aides who served in the 7th
\nassembly have been misappropriated with part of it already diverted into
\nprivate pockets.<\/p>\n
It was learnt that the management led by the Clerk of the National
\nassembly, Mr. Salisu Maikasuwa and his cronies led by Mr. Bukoye Lasisi,
\nsecretary of the finance and accounts committee connived together and
\ndiverted the money into other unapproved purposes once it was released by
\nthe Ministry of Finance.<\/p>\n
Part of the money was also said to have been lodged in some commercial
\nbanks to generate interests meant for sharing by the top bureaucrats.<\/p>\n
It was also gathered that the top bureaucrats were able to perpetuate the
\nmisappropriation and stealing with the connivance of senate president
\nSaraki and Speaker, House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara.<\/p>\n
Sources told Pointblanknews.com that the management convinced the national
\nassembly leadership to look the other because their interests were
\n“carried along” in the misappropriation and illegal sharing of the funds.<\/p>\n
It will be recalled that President Buhari had included the sum of
\nN10billion meant to pay the aides in the 2015 supplementary budget which
\nwas passed by the lawmakers and signed into law.<\/p>\n
The money was released by the ministry of finance shortly after subsidy
\nclaims which was the main reason for the supplementary budget, were paid
\nto assuage the crunching petrol scarcity biting the nation at the time.<\/p>\n
It was also gathered that the severance claims\u00a0 in question actually
\namounted to about N7billion but the national assembly padded the figure to
\nN10billion to “take care of themselves and some interests in the
\nleadership.”<\/p>\n
While the disengaged aides continue to wallow in frustration and
\nhypertension the leadership and management of the national assembly have
\nbeen offering excuses upon excuses why the DTA and severance has not been
\npaid.<\/p>\n
“At a time they even lied that the ministry of finance had not released
\nthe funds only for us to investigate and found out it was a lie,” said a
\nsource.<\/p>\n
Checks revealed that the aggrieved aides are putting finishing touches to
\na petition to be forwarded to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
\n(EFCC) on the matter.<\/p>\n
They are also making moves to reach out to President Buhari to investigate
\nthe massive corruption and impunity going on in the national assembly for
\nyears on end.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, senators and members of the House of Representatives who the
\nsuffering aides served have since been paid their severance gratuities
\nonce their tenure expired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The wave of corruption and impunity in the national assembly is escalating despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti corruption war as the leadership and management are currently embroiled in fresh a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n