Senate responds to corruption allegations by Fmr Pres. Obasanjo

The senate has reacted to the corruption allegations
leveled against it by the former Pres. Olusegun
Obasanjo while at a book launch yesterday in Abuja.
In a statement released and signed by its spokesman,
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe today, the senate frowned
at the allegations that they used their oversight
function to extort money, stating that the oversight
functions of the senate was the initiative of the
former president. The statement reads in part;


"Ex- President Obasanjo for the avoidance of
doubt, was the initiator of the constituency project
in the year 2000 as a means of ensuring that
projects were fairly spread across the country
using the Senatorial zones as the spring board.


To ensure execution of the projects, Obasanjo
again factored the constituency projects into the
annual budgets to be implemented by the
executive depending on availability of funds. That
is to say that no lawmaker ever comes close to the
funds or even determine the contractor for the
said projects or when the said contract would be
awarded. So, it looks curious and surprising that
former President Obasanjo would turn around
after over 10 years of initiating such a project to
allege that the National Assembly is performing
the function of both the executive and the
parliament. Is it not preposterous for anybody to
believe that members of the National Assembly
would against the provisions of the Constitution
with regards to application of separation of
powers, award contracts 'to their agents to
execute' and expect the Presidency under a
President Obasanjo or any other President for
that matter to pay for what they are not part of?
Such allegation stands logic on its head, as it
amounts to an indictment of the Presidency for
wilfully contravening the budget laws by ceding its
power to execute to the National Assembly, if it
was the case."