FG should stop the payment of salaries and allowance to former governors who are in the sanate- FEMI FALANA

July 25, 2016 by miles Abah at 6:39 AM
FG should stop the payment of
salaries and allowances to
former governors who are in the
senate- Femi Falana
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana
in a lecture he delivered yesterday at the
investiture of Mr. Dele Ojogbede as President of Rotary Club, Ikoyi in Lagos, said, it is illegal for
former governors, who have been placed on life
pension in their states, to also earn salaries in
the National Assembly. He also said that
law makers should not be paid their full salaries
and allowances if they don't sit for the
mandatory 181 days before going on a seven-
month recess.
Falana counselled the Federal Government on
what to do with those undermining the anti-
corruption war.
In regards to former governors in the Senate,
Falana said:
“It is high time the Federal Government
stopped the payment of salaries and
allowances to former governors who are
in the senate. Since they are on pension
for life, it is illegal to continue to pay them
salaries and allowances at the same
time.”
He added that none of the 469 lawmakers in the
National Assembly had justification for the
entitlements they collected in the first legislative
year under the President Muhammadu Buhari
administration. He said: “The APC-led National Assembly has also engaged in collecting jumbo emoluments for services not rendered to the nation. “Whereas Section 63 of the Constitution provides that the Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for not less than 181 days in a year, Section 68 states that any legislator who fails to attend the proceedings of the Senate for less than one third of the required number of days shall automatically lose his or her seat. “For the first legislative year which ended on June 9, the Seventh session of the National Assembly did not meet the constitutional requirement. Specifically, due to incessant recesses, the House of Representatives sat for only 104 days while the Senate sat for 96 days. This means that the Senate sat for barely 50 per cent of the required sitting period. “Indeed, some of the senators who had to attend criminal courts where they are  standing trial for corrupt practices did not seat for up to 70 days throughout the legislative year. The Senate was actually shut down on a number of occasions to enable the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki to attend the proceedings of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) where he is standing trial for false declaration of assets. And in solidarity with him, a number of senators abandoned their duties to accompany him to the tribunal.
“Since the labour policy of “no work no
pay” is applicable to all public officers the
legislators ought not to have been paid
when they did not perform any legislative
duty. “In other words, having failed to sit
for the mandatory period of 181 days the
legislators were not entitled to payment of
and allowances for the whole legislative
year.
“Having been paid full emoluments when
they failed to sit for the required number
of days, the legislators ought to refund
some money to the treasury.
“In the circumstance, the Accountant-
General of the Federation should ensure
that the legislators are made to refund the
money collected for the number of days
they failed to sit in the National
Assembly.”
Source: The Nation