The Transition Monitoring Group has lambasted the Senate under the leadership of Bukola Saraki for maintaining what it termed a criminal silence in the face of the prosecution of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki for corruption.
The TMG attributed the continuous closed lips 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, noted that the shocking details that had emerged so far about how monies belonging to the people of Kwara State was allegedly diverted to Saraki’s personal accounts, was an indication that there was an urgent need to fish out corrupt politicians.
He said, “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.
“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.
Speaking further, he added that “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.”
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