President of the Senate, Dr
Bukola Saraki, has formally replied a letter ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo
wrote to the National Assembly on January 13, accusing the country’s federal
lawmakers of corruption, greed, lawlessness and impunity.
This came barely days after the Senate
President took delivery of exotic cars for the Senate.
In his reply, dated January 29, Saraki responded to Obasanjo’s concern, saying the 8th National Assembly under his leadership was already taking deliberate steps to strengthen the country’s democratic institutions and ensure prudent management of resources.
“This is to ensure that we plug all leakages
and minimize waste across our expenditure systems,” the Senate President said
in the two-page letter.
“Likewise, the 8th National
Assembly has made the issue of plugging leakages and cutting wastages in our
public expenditure system a major priority that should not be toyed with. This
may have happened in the past but it will not happen with us,” he said.
The former president had in his
letter, addressed to Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Yakubu Dogara, accused the lawmakers of fixing and earning salaries and
allowances far above what the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal
Commission approved for them.
He also alleged that most of the 109 senators
and 369 members of the House of Representatives were receiving constituency
allowances without maintaining constituency offices as the laws required of
them.
He faulted the plans by the
lawmakers to acquire new exotic cars for themselves, saying “whatever name it
is disguised as, it is unnecessary and insensitive.”