The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has slammed the Nigerian Senate for maintaining ‘a criminal silence’ in the face of the prosecution of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for corruption.
The TMG attributed the silence of the senators to the fear that the anti-corruption search-light would soon be beamed on them.
The TMG Chairman, Ibrahim Zikirullahi in a statement on Friday in Abuja, observed that the lurid details that have emerged so far about how monies belonging to the people of Kwara State were either pilfered or diverted to Saraki’s personal accounts, reminded Nigerians about the urgent need to stamp out elite corruption.
In just two days of trial, the dirty secrets that have emerged are startling, Zikirullahi stated.
“Before the very eyes of the people of Kwara and by extension Nigeria, we are seeing how the criminal alliance between Saraki and his current minion in the Kwara State Government House resulted in the continued payment of Saraki’s salary as governor, four clear years after he ceased to occupy office as governor.
“As if what has been coming out of the CCT is just a tip of the iceberg, Saraki’s name again showed up prominently on the infamous global list of tax dodgers and those hiding suspicious assets in offshore havens as revealed in the leaked Panama Papers.
“It stands in stark contrast that while the Prime Minister of Iceland who was mentioned in the Panama leaks has since resigned, Saraki and his fellow primitive accumulators in the Senate are waiting for the Nigerian people to forget and move on.”
The activist noted that the looted monies could have paid the salaries of teachers, doctors and other workers in Kwara State, adding that the funds could have built schools, hospitals, roads and provide education for the children of the ordinary man and woman in the state.
“While it is tragic that Saraki and his co-travellers have short changed the people of Kwara, and set them back in their quest for good governance, the bigger tragedy is the criminal silence in the Senate,” he said.
“Even though it is well known that the Senate as an institution has remained morally challenged, and bereft of integrity over the years, whatever modicum of regard Nigerians have for this institution is about to be thrown away by the complicity of the insensitive lawmakers supporting Saraki.
“It speaks volumes about the character and antecedents of many of these so-called legislators, that they would put allegiance to their heavily tainted leader, above allegiance to the Nigerian people.”
