Buhari angry over 2016 Budget alterations, says Sagay

Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay yesterday revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari has been angry over revelations that the 2016 Appropriation Bill he submitted to the National Assembly had been illegally tampered with.
Conflicting figures and inflation of budgetary allocations in the budget have dominated its consideration for passage by the lawmakers, who have reportedly suspended further action on it till further notice.
The renown constitutional lawyer who spoke to journalists in Warri, Delta State, said the President had been so angry over the embarrassing scandal that he was determined to punish those that may be found culpable.
Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), also said his understanding of the development showed the problem may be blamed on civil servants.
His words: “From what I have read, the problem came from the civil service. All these allegations of padding came from the civil service not from the presidency.
“From what I have gathered, the President himself is extremely upset about that and he is determined to punish those who were responsible.”
He further confirmed that some prominent Nigerians who looted the country in the previous administration were returning their loots for which the presidency is now considering soft-landing for such persons.
“Yes! A lot of money has been recovered. The result of that is that such people may be given soft-landing”, he said.
The legal luminary came down hard on the Supreme Court over its recent judgments upholding the 2015 governorship elections in Rivers and Akwa-Ibom States, saying the apex court was taking the country backwards.
Describing the verdicts as “very perverse”, Sagay contended that there was a general knowledge that elections never took place in the two states.
According to him: “The judgments are very perverse. Particularly, relating to Akwa-Ibom and Rivers. Everybody knows there were no elections in those two states. Everybody knows that people like Governor Wike climbed to the governorship seat over dead bod¬ies and blood of human beings.
“There were no elections. They wrote the results. Evidence is there. What the Supreme Court has done is to set the clock of electoral excellence, fairness and credibility back. It is taking us backward to when Professor Jega came in to sanitise the system.
“So, we are going to have primitive and barbaric electoral culture from now on. It means kill as much as you can, destroy as much as you can and create as much catastrophe if you can find yourself in that seat; you are confirmed regardless of the means by which you got there. The judgments are major setbacks to democracy and the rule of law.”
Sagay accused some senior members of the bench of frustrating the anti-corruption fight, saying they need to be removed from the legal profession before they drag the country into disrepute.
In his words, “I agree absolutely with the EFCC boss. Some senior lawyers who have totally departed from anything the calling of the law profession requires.
“They have thrown in their lots with the looters and have become fellow looters or enjoy the sharing the proceeds of these looters and because of that they are now absolutely against the anti-corruption war.
“The EFCC chairman was right. There is need to have these senior advocates thoroughly disciplined. And if they will not accept discipline, then they should be removed from the profession before they bring more disgrace to the profession and also drag down the economy of this country.”