Budget padding: Why EFCC can’t probe me – Dogara

– Speaker Yakubu Dogara says EFCC cannot probe him over allegation of budget padding, because of the immunity accorded to him

– He says those calling for his prosecution were doing so out of ignorance

– Dogara says the National Assembly will sensitize the public about the duties of the legislature

Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House of Representatives, has said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) cannot probe him over allegation of budget padding, because of the degree of immunity accorded to him.

Speaking at a forum organised by Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, a public policy think-tank, in Abuja on Thursday, August 11, Dogara said those calling for his prosecution were doing so out of ignorance, Premium Times reports.

According to Dogara, the laws governing the National Assembly accorded all lawmakers a great degree of immunity from prosecution on the basis of exercising their legislative functions.

READ ALSO: EFCC begins investigation into budget padding allegations

Speaker Yakubu Dogara has said EFCC cannot probe him over allegation of budget padding, because of the degree of immunity accorded to him.

He said: “It doesn’t even make sense and they have forgotten about Section 30 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, and others” which says “most of the things we do in the National Assembly are privileged.

“They cannot be grounds for any investigation on the procedure or proceedings to commence against a member of parliament, either the Speaker or the President of the Senate, once they are done in the exercise of their proper functions.

“The Constitution talks about the estimates of revenue and expenditure to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly. The constitution did not mention the word budget. And the reason is very simple. Budget is a law.

”Going by very pedestrian understanding of law which even a part one law student can tell is that the functions of government is such that the legislature makes the law, executive implements and the judiciary interprets the law.

“The budget being a law, therefore, means it is only the parliament that can make it because it is a law. And I challenge all of us members the media and civil society organisations to look at our law and tell me where it is written that the president can make a budget.”

Dogara, who has faced growing calls for him to resign from office following allegations of budget fraud, said ignorance of legislative duties on the part of some citizens was to blame for the outrage against lawmakers’ role in the 2016 budget.

He added that the National Assembly would therefore embark on a massive sensitization of the public about the duties of the legislature in a constitutional republic.

He said: “Recent efforts seeking to discredit the document are a consequence of inadequate knowledge of the legal framework governing appropriation in a presidential democracy.

“This has, nonetheless, opened a new vista of duty for us as a legislature to enhance both internal competences of Members as well as the sensitisation of the public on the role of the legislature in a presidential democracy.

 “The 2016 budget was controversial from the onset but the House handled the controversy with maturity, employing the democratic tools of dialogue, compromise and consensus by which an implementable 2016 Budget was passed and assented to.”

Erstwhile chairman of the House of Representatives committee on appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin had accused the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and some officers of the House of padding the 2016 budget last month.

He accused Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor of asking him to allocate to them N40 billion of the N100 billion allocation for members’ constituency projects.

Jibrin said the speaker masterminded the insertion of fictitious subjects into the budget, an allegation Dogara denied.

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