SERAP sues Lawan, Gbaja after suing Buhari for failing to probe MDA thefts
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Muhammadu Buhari’s tactic is to keep mute over the scandals that break under his nose and throw in distraction for his false prophets to sing his praise. Yet the cesspit he superintends festers and stinks right in Aso Rock and is felt all over the world.
He got elected in 2015 because he promised to fight corruption. But he gives cover to his corrupt officials, including Ministers who act independently of collective government, and lawmakers who copy the President in being unaccountable.
Buhari even relishes breaking the law by refusing to obey court judgements, according to Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) which keeps his feet to the fire to prevent his trampling the Constitution and citizens.
The new sleaze under Nigeria’s laziest President is that N4.14 billion is missing in the National Assembly (NASS) and SERAP has sued to court Senate President Ahmad Lawan and House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila for failing to probe the theft.
The N4.14 billion is different from another N4.4 billion the Auditor General discovered “missing, misappropriated or stolen” in the NASS audited reports for 2015, 2017, and 2018.
That totals N8.54 billion officially discovered to be “missing, misappropriated or stolen” in the NASS in the four years between 2015 and 2018. The sum would be far higher if all stolen funds are discovered and added.
The lawsuit follows the newly released audited report for 2016 by federal Auditor General Adolphus Aghughu in which he raised the alarm about misappropriation of funds and sought recovery of missing sums from the NASS budget, per Vanguard.
It is the latest in such reports of unfettered corruption. Yet Buhari pretends all is well.
On December 24 last year, SERAP wrote a letter to Buhari asking him to investigate N3.14 billion missing in the Finance Ministry headed by Zainab Ahmed, his tax Czar impoverishing Nigerians.
The missing billions is documented in the 2018 and 2019 annual audited reports by Aghughu.
That revelation came after the first set of the reports earlier in the year had shown that N105,662,350,077.46 is missing, misappropriated or unaccounted for across 149 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
SERAP sued Buhari to court last August to compel him to recover the missing N105.66 billion from the thieves in the MDAs instead of borrowing money and taxing Nigerians dry to pay for national loans that are largely stolen by his officials.
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Related articles:
Probe N3.14b missing in Finance Ministry, SERAP tells Buhari
Abuja blames high debt on firms dodging N7tr tax payment
Auditor says 15 MDAs fail to remit N127.13b to treasury
SERAP sues Buhari to explain spending of N729b voted for poor households
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NASS constitutional duties
The new suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja by SERAP lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare and Kehinde Oyewumi is seeking, among others,
“An order of mandamus to direct and compel Lawan and Gbajabiamila to perform their constitutional oversight functions to promptly probe the allegations that fresh N4.1 billion budgeted for the National Assembly may be missing.”
SERAP argued that
“The National Assembly has legal and constitutional duties to prevent and combat corruption, as well as promote transparency and accountability in the management of public resources.
“The National Assembly can only effectively perform its anti-corruption role if it can demonstrate exemplary leadership to probe the allegations of corruption and mismanagement involving the legislative body.
“Transparency and accountability in the management of public resources and wealth are essential for promoting development, people’s welfare and well-being, and their access to basic public services, as well as good governance and the rule of law.
“The failure of the National Assembly to promptly and thoroughly investigate, and to refer to appropriate anti-corruption agencies the allegations documented in the annual audited report for 2016 is a fundamental breach of the oversight and public interest duties imposed on the legislative body.
“The National Assembly has no legally justifiable reason to refuse to investigate the allegations documented by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
“Granting this application would serve the interest of justice, reduce corruption and mismanagement, as well as end impunity of perpetrators, and advance the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.
“This suit seeks to vindicate the rule of law, the public interest, and to promote transparency and accountability. Government agencies and institutions are responsible to a court of justice for the lawfulness of what they do, and of that, the court is the only judge.”
Another N4.4b missing from NASS
SERAP had last year sent a letter to Lawan and Gbajabiamila requesting them to “use their good offices to urgently probe and refer to appropriate anti-corruption agencies allegations that fresh allegations of missing N4.1 billion of public money.”
The letter read in part:
“These fresh allegations are not part of the disclosure by the Auditor-General in the audited reports for 2015, 2017 and 2018 that N4.4 billion of National Assembly money is missing, misappropriated or stolen.
“According to the Auditor-General report for 2016, N4,144,706,602.68 of National Assembly money is missing, diverted or stolen. The National Assembly paid some contractors N417,312,538.79 without any documents.
“The Auditor-General wants the Clerk to the National Assembly to ‘recover the amount in question from the contractors.’”
“The National Assembly reportedly spent N625,000,000.00 through its Constitution Review Committee between March and June 2016 but without any document.
“The Auditor-General wants the Clerk to the National Assembly to ‘recover the amount from the Committee.
“The National Assembly also reportedly spent N66,713,355.08 as ‘personnel cost’ but ‘the payees in the Cashbook did not correspond with those in the Bank Statement’.
“The Auditor-General wants ‘the irregular expenditure recovered from the officer who approved the payments.’”
Plethora of fraud in contracts, allowances, staff training
“The National Assembly also reportedly paid N116,162,522.60 to some contractors between April and June 2016 without any document.
“The National Assembly deducted N56,985,568.55 from various contract payments in respect of Withholding Tax and Value Added Tax but without any evidence of remittance.
“The National Assembly also reportedly paid N126,264,320.00 as cash advances to 11 staff members between March and December 2016 to procure goods and services but failed to remit the money.
“The Senate reportedly paid N747,286,680.00 as personal advances to staff members between February and December 2016 for various procurements and services but failed to retire the money.
“The Senate also deducted N118,625,057.48 as Withholding and Value Added Taxes but failed to show any evidence of remittance to the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
“The Senate also spent N109,007,179.73 from the Capital Expenditure vote but without any document.
“The House of Representatives reportedly deducted N821,564,296.48 from staff salaries but failed to remit the money to tax authorities.
“The House also paid N254,059,513.70 as advances to staff members to procure goods and services between January and December 2016 but failed to retire the money.
“The National Institute for Legislative Studies reportedly spent N375,867,000.00 to buy 11 motor vehicles in April 2016. But the Institute also paid the same contractor N36,610,000.00 in September 2016 under the same contract without approval.
“The Institute also reportedly paid N10,927,768.80 to 7 members of staff who were redeployed from the National Assembly to provide specialised services but without details about the staff paid, and without any justification.
“The National Assembly Service Commission reportedly approved N109,995,400.00 to train some officers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates but spent N127,629,600.00 as Estacode Allowances to participants, and fees for two consultants engaged for the training.
“The Commission also spent N9,975,000.00 as course fees for 34 officers but it also paid a consultant N4,987,500.00 for the same course fees.
“The Legislative Aides Section earned N12,274,587.77 as interests on Bank accounts in a commercial bank between January and December 2016 but failed to remit the money to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.