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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has written the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, decrying the high cost of running the National Assembly. He accused the lawmakers of devising disingenuous methods of making all manners of illegal allowances and other allocations to themselves, different from the statutory provisions by the Constitution and the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, which is charged with the responsibility of fixing emoluments of the three arms of government. In particular, Obasanjo criticised the purchase of official cars for the legislators, when such items had already been factored into the official allowances for the lawmakers by RMAFC. Regarding also the purchase of official cars for committees, the former president suggested that maintaining a few cars for each Chamber would suffice for any committee chairman or members for any specific duty, maintaining that the waste

A Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has berated the immediate past Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, describing her service to Nigeria as one based on lies, deceit and disregard for due process. The senior advocate said this in a three-page statement on Wednesday while reacting to Okonjo-Iweala’s diatribe against him. Okonjo-Iweala had on Monday described Falana as an ‘integrity-challenged charlatan’ who was being sponsored by corrupt elements. The former minister had also slammed Falana for attempting to implicate her in the $2.1bn arms scam and drag her before the International Criminal Court. However, Falana said it was hypocritical of Okonjo-Iweala to attempt to extricate herself from the corruption that characterised the last administration. He said her service record was that of scandals and scams. He noted that the N2.5tn fuel subsidy scam, the $2bn arms scam, the mismanaged $1bn Gen. Sani Abacha loot and many other episodes of fin

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday introduced two bills to the National Assembly to strengthen the war against money laundering. The bills were titled, “The Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016” and “The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, 2016.” The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, read the letter containing the bills at plenary on Wednesday while at the House of Representatives, the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, read Buhari’s letter conveying the bills to members. Buhari in the letter stated that the first bill sought to repeal the existing Money Laundering Act, which was enacted in 2011 to provide for stiffer penalty for money launderers to discourage the illegal act. On the second bill, the President explained that its aim was to make provisions that would enable Nigeria to seek international assistance in recovering looted funds. Part of the letter read, “This bill seeks to facilitate the provision and obtaining by Nigeria o