Buhari: How NASS Squandered Over N1Trillion; Calls For Special Crimes Court

By Akinwale Kasali

The National Assembly has raped Nigeria, and monumentally cheated the masses.

President Muhammadu Buhari, in disclosing this,  slammed the National Assembly for not judiciously utilising the money earmarked for Constituency Projects.

Speaking at a two-day National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in Public Sector at the State House Conference Centre,  Abuja, Buhari said over N1 trillion earmarked for this cause,  in the last 10 years, was frittered away.

He lamented that rural communities are yet to feel the impact of the huge sum allocated by federal legislators as constituency projects.

The President: “It is on record that in the past 10 years, N1 trillion has been appropriated for constituency projects, yet the impact of such huge spending on the lives and welfare of ordinary Nigerians can hardly be seen”.

He, however, showered encomiums on the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences, ICPC, for beaming its searchlight on contractors who have defaulted, revealing that through the actions of the ICPC on constituency projects, over 200 contractors had returned to site to complete projects paid for.

He then directed the ICPC to go after government officials and contractors who collect funds for constituency projects without executing them, and  make sure the projects are completed or the money recovered.

He, also, called on the judiciary to embrace and support the creation of Special Crimes Court.

“The fight against corruption is not only for government and anti-corruption agencies alone. All arms and tiers of government must develop and implement the anti-corruption measures. I invite the legislative and judicial arms of government to support the creation of Special Crimes Court that Nigerians have been agitating for to handle corruption cases”, he said.

On his recent directive to all agencies of government to enroll into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the president directed ICPC to go after public institutions that were yet to comply, as the policy was adopted to halt the padding of personnel budgets and misappropriation of capital budgets.