As members of the National Assembly resume from
their month-long recess on Tuesday, the Legislature and
the Executive arms of government have been called
upon to sheathe their swords so that lawmakers can
work on practical legislations and engage in qualitative
oversight functions on ministries so that Nigerians can
overcome the present economic recession.
This was stated by the Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, while reminding the
political class of the national emergency with which they
should tackle the excruciating poverty levels afflicting
millions of Nigerians and confront the expanding
frontiers of insecurity and killings of innocent Nigerians
by armed hoodlums of different
Evaluations.
People For Putting Pepper Inside Puff-Puff
In a statement issued on Sunday by the National
Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko,
the group specifically urged President Muhammadu
Buhari to direct the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation and the Federal Attorney General and
Minister of Justice to end all litigations against the
leadership of the Senate in the Code of Conduct
Tribunal, CCT, and in the High Courts.
The tribunal had fixed October 5 to deliver ruling on the
fresh motion seeking to suspend hearing on the 16-
count criminal charge pending against the Senate
President, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
The Federal Government had alleged that Saraki made
false/anticipatory declaration of assets and operated
foreign accounts while in office as Kwara State governor
between 2003 and 2011.
Aside this, the Federal Government is prosecuting
Saraki, the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike
Ekweremadu and two others over charges bordering on
conspiracy and forgery of senate rule in 2015. Taking
their plea at an FCT High court sitting in Jabi, Abuja, they
pleaded not guilty.
HURIWA stated that the subsisting case in the Danladi
Umar-led CCT and the forgery case at the Abuja High
Court against both Saraki and his Deputy
“must be
withdrawn because they are such a bad intentioned
distractions capable of derailing any constructive pursuit
of solution through lawmaking mechanisms of a rapid
end to the crippling economic downturns.
“Those are unnecessary distractions that could impede
the total commitments of the legislators at the National
Assembly to more vigorously pursue a broad- based
legislative approach to help Nigeria rapidly overcome the
rampaging Economic Recession sweeping across the
Country with the concomitant consequences of mass
poverty, hunger, unemployment and hyperinflation that
have overwhelmed millions of Nigerians since the last
four Months,” HURIWA stated.
Turning to the House of Representatives, the rights
group called for truce and stability of leadership so the
green chamber of the National Assembly can more
constructively confront the biting economic downturns.
It also condemned the inclination by a Rap member,
Abdulmumin Jibrin, to cast aspersions in the media
against the properly constituted hierarchy of the lower
chamber, “with the clear agenda to destabilise the
leadership and foist bootlicking and sycophantic
leadership that would be subservient to the Executive
branch of government.”
Jibrin had earlier written to the 360 members of the
House, urging them to pressurize Speaker Dogara and
the three others he accused of padding the 2016 budget
to resign. The three others are: Deputy Speaker, Yussuf
Suleiman Lasun, chief whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa and
minority leader, Leo Ogor.
HURIWA, however, called for restraints and social
responsibility on the part of the media on the
publications of highly explosive and unsubstantiated
allegations against the House leadership.
The statement reads, “Nigerian people should embrace
the participatory roles in government accorded them by
the tenets of the Constitution by demanding that
individuals in both the Executive and legislative
branches of government who would continue to pursue
vendetta and political witch hunts are named and
shamed and if possible recalled or impeached for peace
to reign.
