The Senate has faulted the wordings of a petition submitted by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The Deputy Director of SERAP, Kolawole Oluwadare, had in a statement alleged that an audit report revealed that N4.4 billion budgeted for the National Assembly was misappropriated.
According to SERAP, the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation reported that the National Assembly had in 2015 spent huge sums without any form of documentation to ensure accountability and transparency.
Recall former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, in 2019, alleged that over $3.6 billion (1.3 trillion naira) was stolen from public coffers between 2011 and 2015.
SERAP gave Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, 14 days ultimatum to address and implement the recommendations contained in the audit reports.
‘Any failure to promptly, thoroughly and independently investigate these serious allegations, prosecute suspected perpetrators, and recover missing public funds and assets would undermine public trust in the ability of the leadership of the National Assembly to ensure probity, transparency and accountability in the management of public funds’, SERAP stated.
‘We would be grateful if you would indicate the measures being taken to address the allegations and to implement the proposed recommendations, within 14 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter’, it added.
‘If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions to compel the leadership of the National Assembly to implement these recommendations in the public interest, and to promote transparency and accountability in the National Assembly’.
But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Ajibola Basiru, said the alleged infractions occurred during the eighth National Assembly, not in the ninth National Assembly.
‘This clarification is important as the wordings of the petition are capable of misleading the general public that SERAP is talking about the present National Assembly’, he said.
‘It is not about any malfeasance by the current Assembly and its leadership as it is presently constituted, far from it’.
Source: SERAP
Photo source: National Assembly Voices
