Barely 24 hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo lampooned the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, the National Assembly and the spokesman of the House of Representatives yesterday took a swipe at the former President, describing him as the grandfather of corruption in Nigeria.
The House also constituted five adhoc committees, consisting of 72 members, to investigate allegations of corruption in different ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, of government.
Spokesman of the House, Abdulrazaq Namdas told newsmen at a briefing yesterday at the NASS complex that Obasanjo had the intention of bringing down President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
Namdas, who read a prepared statement, said: “Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo at a lecture he delivered recently, wherein, in his characteristic manner, accused everybody but himself of corruption.
“He ventured to accuse the National Assembly of Budget padding, accused the House of criminal activities of threatening the life of a “whistleblower”, lampooned constituency projects which he approved as President, ventured to discuss the budget of National Assembly, which is highly underfunded.
“The House of Representatives would ordinarily not join issues with the former President as he has held an office that deserves respect and reverence. “However, because of the material mis-statement of facts, falsehoods, and mischievous innuendo in his statement, we are left with no option but to correct him.
“We have repeatedly maintained that there was no “padding” of the 2016 Appropriation Act, which is a legitimate document passed by the National Assembly, authenticated by the Clerk to the National Assembly as provided in the Acts Authentication Act and assented to by Mr. President.
“It is most unfortunate that a former President of Chief Obasanjo’s stature would allow himself to be hoodwinked by a renegade member of the House, who embarked on massive propaganda and lies just because he was removed from office.
‘’For the avoidance of doubt, there is no crime committed by the National Assembly by exercising its constitutional function of appropriation.
“If Chief Obasanjo has an issue with the execution of the 2016 Budget or, indeed, other Appropriation Acts, he should direct his anger elsewhere.