Ex senator blasts lawmakers over alteration of 2018 budget; says NASS members are the most corrupt people in Nigeria

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- Senator Femi Okurounmu has stated that National Assembly members are the most corrupt people in Nigeria

- The former lawmaker insisted that the legislators are fraudulent, not just because of budget padding but because they introduced extra-illegal amounts into the budget, to meet their illegal allowances

- However, he also opined that the Presidency and the National Assembly are two sets of robbers; as he pointed out that Buhari is also surrounded by corrupt people

Members of the National Assembly have been described as the most corrupt people in Nigeria, by a former member of the Assembly, Senator Femi Okurounmu.

The former lawmaker made the assertion in a chat with newsmen in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, on Thursday, June 21, Tribune reports.

NAIJ.com gathers that Okurounmu, the former chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference, made the comment against the backdrop of the 2018 budget which was recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He insisted that the legislators are fraudulent, not only because of budget padding but because they introduced extra-illegal amounts into the budget, to take care of their illegal allowances.

He stated: “They are fraudulent; not only do they do a lot of budget padding, they introduce a lot of extra-legal amounts just to meet all those illegal allowances that they are getting. To now accommodate their own demands, they inflate the budget.

“The president doesn’t know how to deal with the National Assembly; so there is always a stalemate between the National Assembly and the Presidency and the president is always going along with them because every budget the National Assembly inflates must accommodate their own demands or needs, and these are the things that people cry about; about the horrible, extraneous allowances of legislators – senators and House of Reps. This is where it comes from.

“If he wants to fight corruption, there is a lot of corruption to be fought in the National Assembly. They are the legislators.

“In fact, it is immoral for those who are corrupt to be making laws for the nation. They are among the most corrupt people in Nigeria.”

However, when asked why the president went ahead to sign the budget, despite the huge anomalies, the former lawmaker opined that the Presidency and the National Assembly are two sets of robbers.

He said: “He has no choice because as I have said, there’s a stalemate. The National Assembly blackmailed him; he cannot dismiss all of them, and he doesn’t have the courage to fight them.

“If he has the courage to fight them he can fight them; but he doesn’t have the courage because he’s surrounded by corrupt people himself.

” So, just as the National Assembly can blackmail him, he too can blackmail the National Assembly. So, it’s a game of mutual blackmail. They are two sets of robbers: the National Assembly and the Presidency.”

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that Senator Olamilekan Adeola, a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriation and Finance, explained that the alteration of the 2018 budget by lawmakers was in the interest of Nigerians.

Adeola spoke in Abuja, in response to President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement on the National Assembly’s alleged padding of the 2018 budget.

He stated that the alteration was done in the interest of good Nigerians, and in accordance with the stipulated law.

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