Femi Falana, SAN, yesterday accused the All Progressives Congress, APC-led<\/p>\n
federal government of covering up cases of corruption<\/p>\n
In a statement personally signed by him, Falana claimed that about 20
\nlegislators in both chambers of the National Assembly altered the budget
\nby \u201cinserting constituency projects worth N100 billion in the 2016 budget.
\nBoth the Senate and the House allocated to themselves N60 billion and N40
\nbillion respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
The human rights activist noted that if \u201cit is established that the
\nalterations were effected after the passing of the budget by both houses
\nthe issue at hand goes beyond padding. A clear case of conspiracy, fraud,
\nforgery and corruption can be established against the suspects.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained that padding \u201ctakes place when legislators resolve to rewrite
\nthe budget by introducing new items outside the estimates prepared and
\npresented to them by the president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe controversy over the padding of budget was laid to rest with the
\nenactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 which has imposed a duty
\non the finance minister to source input from certain institutions
\nincluding the national assembly during the course of preparing the budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is when negotiations and horse trading with the executive by the
\nlegislators is allowed. But neither the Constitution nor the Fiscal
\nResponsibility Act has empowered the National Assembly members to rewrite
\nthe national budget by including constituency projects whose costs are
\narbitrarily fixed by the legislators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under section 81 of the Constitution, Falana pointed out that only the
\npresident \u201cis given the exclusive power to cause the budget to be
\nprepared. Upon the preparation of the budget by the executive, it shall be
\nlaid or presented to the National Assembly by the president.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argued that in debating the Appropriation Bill, the legislators might
\nreduce the estimates if there \u201care errors or inflation of the cost of
\nitems or if certain items provided for has been purchased before or for
\nany other genuine reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the National Assembly cannot increase the budget in any manner
\nwhatsoever. So, the unilateral introduction of constituency projects is
\ntotally illegal and unconstitutional. By introducing new items, the
\nNational Assembly has usurped the powers of the President to prepare the
\nbudget.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn other words, the legislators would have prepared the budget and laid
\nit before themselves and then passed it. That is a negation of the
\ndoctrine of separation of powers. The appropriation bill or amended
\nappropriation bill is not like other bills.<\/p>\n
Whereas other bills shall emanate from either of the two houses, money
\nbills shall emanate from the President.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo a money bill is a special bill which cannot be subjected to additions
\nby the national assembly because it has no power to prepare it. Padding is
\nan unconstitutional infraction when the estimates are increased on the
\nfloor of the House. The infraction becomes criminal when the Appropriation
\nBill is altered by a few legislators after it had been passed by both
\nhouses of the national assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n
He, therefore, said the speaker claimed that the padding of the 2016 was
\nnot a criminal offence, noting that Dogara\u2019s confidence \u201cis likely to have
\nbeen anchored on the statement credited to the presidency that the budget
\nwas not padded in any material particular.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore then, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had decided to follow
\nthe discredited path by treating the serious allegation of monumental
\ncorruption as a family affair of the ruling party.\u201d<\/p>\n
But unlike the PDP, Falana noted that the APC government failed \u201cto act
\ntimeously. In other words, a cover up is no longer possible at this stage
\nas the cat has been let out of the bag. For now, Dogara has no choice, but
\nto defend the criminal allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cContrary to Dogara\u2019s misleading contention, the Legislative Houses Powers
\nand Privileges Act has not conferred immunity on him with respect to
\nallegations of criminal offences. Since the immunity conferred by the Act
\nis limited to contributions to debates by members of the National
\nAssembly, he cannot ward off the invitation of the Nigeria Police and the
\nEFCC to react to the criminal allegations leveled against.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Senior Advocate cited what happened when the 2005 appropriation bill
\nwas under consideration in the Senate, noting that some senators including
\nthe then Senate President padded the budget of a ministry after collecting
\nN55 million bribe from a minister.<\/p>\n
He said the scandal led \u201cto the removal of the senate president who was
\nlater charged with his indicted colleagues and the minister. The Supreme
\nCourt has recently ordered that the suspects be tried for corruption
\nhaving thrown out the preliminary objections filed against the charges by
\nthem at the trial court.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Femi Falana, SAN, yesterday accused the All Progressives Congress, APC-led federal government of covering up cases of corruption In a statement personally signed by him, Falana claimed that about 20…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n