Blaming 8th Senate For Insecurity Under Buhari Is Unfounded- Saraki Tells MURIC

President of the 8th Senate, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has talked down allegations by Prof. Ishaq Akintola, Director of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)  that the Senate rejected the President’s request for $1 billion for the purchase of arms.

Oluwole Onemola, media aide for Saraki released a statement that clarified the exact thing that happened for the Senate to reject the money for the purchase of arms.

According to Onemola, the reason the Senate refuse to accept the money was that due process provided by the constitution was not followed.

The statement read in part: “This means that Mr. President did not follow the proper procedure during this constitutionally-flawed and thoroughly unprecedented ‘anticipatory approval.’ Still, the National Assembly went ahead to approve the money that the executive has started disbursing without approval. Thus, $1 billion was approved by the 8th National Assembly.”

“However, it was only after the U.S. Congressional Delegation met with the Nigerian National Assembly delegation in Nigeria on Monday, August 28th, 2017, that reassurances were made by the Nigerian Senate President on behalf of the National Assembly – that the Nigerian National Assembly delegation promised that it would look into the allegations of human rights violations, and work to prevent any future recurrence.”

“On the 8th and 12th of February, the Senate held a special security summit attended by the Service Chiefs, the NSA, and Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, and other key stakeholders in the national security architecture and the international community to discuss the security situation in the country;

“On the 23rd of May 2018, when the Senate asked the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Service Chiefs to present it with its funding requirements — giving our armed forces an almost ‘blank cheque.’ This Security Summit came up with a 21-point recommendation which was subsequently forwarded to the Presidency for implementation.

“The 8th Senate considered over 101 security-related motions/point of orders in 4-years; The 8th Senate referred 57 security-related matters to its relevant committees;vThe 8th Senate decided 42 security-related matters on the Senate Plenary floor;vThe 8th Senate had 38 security-sector interventions in the form of Bills.