Court stops National Assembly from fixing members’ allowances
By ENIOLA AKINKUOTU, Abuja
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos says it is illegal for the National Assembly to fix its own allowances.
In what is being described as a landmark judgment, Justice Chuka Obiozor said only the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission can fix salaries for public officers.
Obiozor delivered the judgement in a suit filed by a former Vice-President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Monday Ubani.
A former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, had said in March 2018 that he received N13.5m allowances monthly.
Ubani subsequently asked the court to decide if the National Assembly had the right to arbitrarily fix its allowances.
He also asked the court to order the National Assembly members to refund such jumbo allowances received.
The respondents in the case were the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Attorney-General of the Federation, the National Assembly Service Commission and the RMAFC
In his ruling, Justice Obiozor said no other body or person in the country shall fix salary or allowances for any officer except RMAFC and it is illegal for anyone to do otherwise.
The judge, however, did not order that such allowances be refunded.
The National Assembly, which has 469 members, had been severely criticised for operating an opaque budget and refusing to reveal the allowances of its members.
The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, said Nigerian federal lawmakers are among the highest-earning lawmakers in the world. (The PUNCH)
963215 34725I will appropriate away grasp your rss as I can not in locating your e-mail subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do youve any? Kindly permit me realize so that I could subscribe. Thanks. 734590
522757 837485I certainly did not realize that. Learnt something new nowadays! Thanks for that. 521159
I would like to thnkx for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I am hoping the same high-grade web site post from you in the upcoming as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own site now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings rapidly. Your write up is a good example of it.
Perfectly composed content, Really enjoyed studying.
Nice read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing some research on that. And he just bought me lunch because I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!