Brickbats, attacks and counter attacks are the order of the day since the statement made by President Muhammadu Buhari, and corroborated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences, ICPC, over the alleged mismanaged N1 Trillion Constituency Projects by National Assembly members.
The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, faulted the ICPC, saying the National Assembly could also scrutinise the Commission’s finances to determine the amount budgeted for its operations, and how it was spent.
Gbajabiamila, who tactically avoided mentioning Buhari in his comments, said the ICPC should be blamed for the criticisms by the President.
The Speaker said, “I think it is a bit of the collective privilege of the whole House, not just one person. My concern is the unintended consequences of words spoken. These are words emanating from the report by the ICPC. There are unintended consequences that could come out of this. It will put people’s wellbeing at risk.
“I will use this medium to send this message across to the ICPC and all other such agencies that they should do thorough investigations; that there is a difference between monies budgeted and monies released. It is as simple as ABC. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that there is a difference.”
At a news conference, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, senators said Buhari’s statement was erroneous because constituency projects were usually funded and executed by the executive.
Speaking on behalf of his PDP colleagues, the Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said Buhari should question his ministers and heads of federal agencies if he claimed that he was not comfortable with the level of the projects implementation.
He said, “We are not worried by the statement because we know that it was a statement that was erroneous. We know that somebody must have written a speech and put false information in the speech.
“I have done constituency project and we have always said that constituency projects are not executed by the senators or the House of Representatives’ members.
“Constituency projects are domiciled in the executive who executes them. So if the President said he had not seen anything for it he should ask his ministers and the agencies under him because they are the people who have been executing these projects.”
In the same vein, the Acting spokesman for the Senate, Godiya Akwashiki, said the statement credited to the President Buhari indicting the National Assembly had not been officially transmitted to the Senate.
Akwashiki said if the President had concerns about the National Assembly, “there is a communication channel for him” to reach its leadership.
Akwashiki added that the issue is being overflogged by the media as the President is the President of this country, and he spoke as the Chief Executive but the media can be funny atimes.
“Mr President has not written to the National Assembly officially on this matter. We have modes of communication and I want to believe, if he has anything, he will write to us.”
But the House wondered how the ICPC arrived at N1tn when the budgets for the constituency projects over the years were not properly funded.
Discover more from The Source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
