The Senate has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to caution Professor Itse Sagay, the chairman of the Presidential Action Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC), from spreading falsehood and making hate speeches against the National Assembly..
The upper chamber said Sagay was fond of using every occasion he has to make public speeches to ridicule the Federal Legislature by using crude and unprintable words to describe the legislators and the institution they represent.
The lawmakers expressed their irritation at Sagay in a statement released by Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi in Abuja yesterday.
Abdullahi said that Sagay had been one of the few discordant elements in the Buhari administration who believe their significance is improved only when they generate constant strain between the legislature and the executive while also setting members of the executives against each other.
He noted that legislators had ignored past rabble-rousing by the Professor of law, but his recently, he has turned it up another notch.
Abdulahi said Sagay’s speech at a public lecture in Lagos organized by the Society of International Law where he gave false details about the salary and allowances of the legislators and the various bills passed bordered on stirring members of the public against the legislators and intentionally spreading hate speech; which the government is working hard to contain.
“Ordinarily, we would ignore Sagay whose statements and attitude present him like a rascal and sadist instead of a former university teacher,” the lawmaker said in the statement.
“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 anti-corruption 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 Senator said salaries and allowances of the lawmakers are open books and the details can be taken from the RMFAC by any interested party.
Abdullahi added: “Prof. Sagay at his lecture in Lagos also made comparisons which did little credit to his background as a lecturer as he was talking of the salary of the United States President and that of a Nigerian legislator. That is like comparing oranges with apples. Only a senile, jaded, rustic and outdated Professor of Law like Sagay will make such a comparison which falls flat on its face, even to an ordinary lay man. Surely, Sagay is basing his analysis on street talks.
“Sagay could not even check the records before proclaiming that ‘the National Assembly has not passed a single bill for the promotion of anti-corruption war since it commenced business in July 2015′. First, the 8th National Assembly was inaugurated on June 9, 2015 not July. Also, it is on record that the Senate has passed the Whistle Blowers’ Protection Bill, Witness Protection Bill, Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency Bill.
“This man talks like a man who is constantly under the influence of some substance and perhaps possessed as he employs the language of a tout with no civility. He is probably constantly excited and incensed by the fact of having his first opportunity to find himself in the corridors of power.
“He pontificates and talks as if the war against corruption of the Buhari administration depends solely on him to survive. He once publicly attacked the Attorney General of the Federation and accused him of not doing enough to prosecute the war. In the Lagos speech, he took a blanket swipe at the judiciary and rubbished that entire institution which he as a lawyer has the professional, ethical and constitutional duty to respect.
“This is a man who cannot stand for Councilorship election and win. We challenge him to state what his contributions are in the election of our amiable President, Muhammadu Buhari and what new ideas he has contributed to making the fight against corruption more effective since his appointment. With an easily excited man like him as head of an advisory body, the nation has continued to lose anti-corruption cases in courts due to the failure of his advice. He needs to do more work and talk less because media prosecution cannot win the war on corruption.”