While speaking during Wednesday’s plenary session, members of the Nigerian Senate reportedly asked the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), to name the persons with questionable character in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
According to Punch newspaper, the angry lawmakers, who took turns to take a swipe at Sagay, berated the Law scholar for using derogatory words on the Senate.
The Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, while raising a point of order, made reference to Sagay’s comments in reaction to the protest by the Senate against the retention of Ibrahim Magu as the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission despite the rejection of his nomination by the lawmakers.
Several senators, at the plenary had on Tuesday, spoke against the consideration of a letter from the Presidency requesting legislative approval for the nomination of 27 Resident Electoral Commissioners for the Independent National Electoral Commission and insisted that the process be abandoned until Magu was removed.
Na’Allah, on Wednesday, quoted Sagay’s comment in the Wednesday edition of The Punch, where he said what the Senate did on the RECs was “childish and irresponsible.”
The lawmaker also criticised Sagay for saying the Senate was filled with people of questionable character, who put their personal interest ahead of that of the nation.
Na’Allah urged the Senate to ask Sagay to appear before the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions and name the lawmakers he was referring to.
President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, who presided over the plenary, referred Na’Allah’s petition to the panel, which was mandated to report back in four weeks.
