CSOs Ask Lawan to Sack Senator Barau Jibrin As Senate Committee Chair on Appropriation
- A ranking senator in the Nigeriajn Senate has been accused of corruption by some civil society groups
- The groups, Guidance of Democracy and Development Initiative and Partners for Legislative Agenda in Nigeria want the senator sanctioned
- The Kano-born senator is yet to officially reacts to allegations made against him by the civil society groups
FCT, Abuja - Some civil society organisations on Thursday, December 16, called on Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan to sack the chairman Senate committee on appropriation, Senator Barau Jibrin.
The groups, Guidance of Democracy and Development Initiative (GDDI) and Partners for Legislative Agenda in Nigeria (PLAN) stated that cannot remain the chairman of the committee in the face of the report of his involvement in budget padding.
Source: Twitter
Leaders of the group, Comrade Danesi Momoh Prince of GDDI and Comrade Igwe Ude-Umanta, noted that Senator Jibrin's continuous leadership of such a sensitive committee is in variance with the All Progressives Congress anti-corruption crusade.
The groups told Lawan:
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“It is therefore incumbent on you as the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to rise to the moral and patriotic occasion before you and sack the indicted senator.”
They further said:
“We are very saddened about the manifestation of corruption in Nigeria in its instituted forms. At a period of undeniable economic downturn and financial austerity for the federal government, it is suffocating to live with the fact that as long as a character like Senator Barau Jibrin chairs the appropriation committee of the Senate, budget padding will be the order of the day.
“The 2020 Appropriation Act is full of padded expenditures which have now been pronounced by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as failing in all the integrity tests of accepted procedures in procurement and an aberration to the provisions of the Procurement Act.
“In the reported constituency and executive tracking exercise phase 3 report of the ICPC, it has become obvious that Senator Barau Jibrin has bestrode our national budget as a monstrous colossus, creating expenditures that can only be criminally explained, or accounted for.
“And expectedly, the senator has not denied the allegations in the ICPC report against him. A man who is found to have grossly abused our National Budget should not by any moral compass be allowed to continue to superintend over the legislative scrutiny of our national budget.”
Group accuses Rotimi Amaechi, Hassan Bello of alleged corruption
Similarly, a group, Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER), has accused a serving minister and former government official of breaching public trust.
The executive director of CASER, Barrister Frank Tietie, made the allegations at a press conference in Abuja.
He specifically accused the minister of transportation and Hassan Bello, the immediate past Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council of blatant disregard for legal standards of public procurement.
Buhari vows to sanction govt officials over illegal recruitment
a related development, President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the high level of corruption going on in the public workforce.
The president threatened to sanction those who bring personnel into the civil service through illegal recruitment, pad their payroll and retain ghost workers.
Buhari made this known on Tuesday, November 30, in Abuja while declaring open the third national summit on diminishing corruption in the public sector with the theme ‘Corruption and cost of governance: New imperatives for fiscal transparency.’
Source: Legit.ng
