The Senate on Thursday dismissed a scathing
attack by former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, saying Mr. Obasanjo merely sought
to disrespect the National Assembly by
accusing its members of extensive corruption.
Mr Obasanjo, in a furious outburst
Wednesday, had accused members of the
Senate and House of Representatives of
stealing constituency funds, and extorting
government officials they supervise through
blackmail and intimidation.
The spokesperson for the Senate, Enyinnaya
Abaribe, said in a statement that Mr.
Obasanjo’s claim about constituency project
funds was an outright lie aimed at
misinforming Nigerians.
“The allegation as spurious as it were. Its very
distant from the truth and is nowhere near
reality,” Mr. Abaribe said.
“President Obasanjo for the avoidance of
doubt, was the initiator of the constituency
project in the year 2000 as a means of
ensuring that projects were fairly spread
across the country using the Senatorial zones
as the spring board.
“To ensure execution of the projects,
President Obasanjo again factored the
constituency projects into the annual budgets
to be implemented by the executive
depending on availability of funds.
That is to
say that no lawmaker ever comes close to the
funds or even determine the contractor for the
said projects or when the said contract would
be awarded,” Mr. Abaribe said.
He said it was curious that Mr. Obasanjo
would turn around after over 10 years of
initiating such a project to accuse the
National Assembly of misusing such money.
“Such allegation stands logic on its head, as it
amounts to an indictment of the Presidency
for wilfully contravening the budget laws by
ceding its power to execute to the National
Assembly, if it was the case,” he said.
He said, “It will also help to clear the
allegation once and for all, if any presidency
official not only from the time past but
currently, could come forward and explain the
true position of the so called constituency
projects. Doing so would at least set the
records straight.”
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