The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN, has said that the Senate would be disgraced if it challenged former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
He advised the members of the Red Chamber to accept Jega’s remark that the National Assembly was deeply enmeshed in bribery.
He said, “Obviously, Jega has names. I wouldn’t be surprised if when he was presiding over INEC, some of them did that (demanded bribes); so let them not challenge him too far.
“He just decided to be politically correct by not mentioning names. If they challenge him, he would mention names.
“We all have names of different people who have done different things. The fact that no one is mentioning them doesn’t mean the claims are not true. So, he is right. This corruption has been going on since 1999.
“They claim to be carrying out oversight functions and would insist that the agency they want to oversight would book their hotel rooms, pay for their food, pay for their transport and then give them money in addition.
“What sort of result would come out of such an oversight exercise? They have run their institution aground, making it almost irrelevant in Nigerian democracy.
“The legislature will change when people of integrity begin to enter the Senate and begin to kill that culture (of corruption).
“For example, even though I don’t agree with him in all things, I would be shocked if I hear that Senator Shehu Sani demanded bribe from anybody because I believe he is a man of integrity.
“When more and more people like that begin to come in, there would be a change.“
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