Attack on N/Assembly: Senate asks Buhari to call Sagay to Order

The Senate yesterday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call the chairman of the Presidential Action Committee on AntiCorruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay to order for allegedly spreading falsehood and hate speeches against the National Assembly.

In a statement by its spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Senate stated that Sagay was using every opportunity he has to make public speeches to disparage the Federal Legislature by using uncouth and unprintable words to describe the legislators and the institution they represent.

It noted that Sagay had been one of the few divisive elements in the Buhari administration who believe their relevance is enhanced only when they create constant tension between the legislature and the executive while also setting members of the executives against each other.

he senators said Professor Sagay gave false details about their salary and allowances and the various bills passed at a public lecture in Lagos organized by the Society of International Lawyers with the aim of inciting members of the public against them.

“Ordinarily, we would ignore Sagay whose statements and attitude present him like a rascal and sadist instead of a former university teacher. However, his last speech in Lagos during which he was reeling out false and exaggerated figures about the salaries and allowances of legislators and also lied about the passage of anticorruption bills showed that he just deliberately set out to undermine the legislative institution and lower its reputation in the estimation of right thinking members of the society and we therefore believe we should put him in his rightful place.

“As an academic whose creed should be to find facts and make comments based on truth, we believe that Sagay should stop spreading beer parlour rumours about the salaries and allowances of legislators when he could simply get the facts from the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC) which is the body constitutionally charged with the responsibility of fixing salaries and allowances of all public officials,” the statement said, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to caution Sagay.