EFCC Charges Bankole and Nafada to Court

PHOTONEWS: Bankole and Nafada's EFCC Reunion

By Saharareporters

Legal commentary: Part of today's criminal complaint attempts to address the large "remuneration", "salaries" and "allowances" the legislators misappropriated to themselves last year. Each member of the  house of representatives receives about $1.2 million while their Senate counterparts get $1.8 million.

Part of the criminal complaints  states:
"dishonestly disbursing the said [loan] amount to various accounts of Members of the House of Representatives without  the consent and approval of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission"

Section 84 of the Constitution of Nigeria and Sections 31 and 32 of Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the Constitution of Nigeria require the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to "determine" the "remuneration" "salaries"and "allowances" of these legislators, among other public office holders.
According to the criminal charges, in this case, the appropriation and disbursement of the loan on a federal bank account to pay these salaries, remuneration and allowances, amount to misappropriation of federal property, therefore, theft of federal property.
Even if Bankole and Nafada had  used the loan for these disbursements, and instead, direct fund from the budget was used (disbursement from 2011 budget  has not occurred yet; the loan was actually an advance against the 2011 budget), it will be misappropriation of federal property. In other words, if the 7th national assembly were to disburse money based on the unconstitutional amounts of $1.2 Million and $1.8 million to themselves respectively, the principal officers will be committing theft as well.

 Posted By: 'Bola Adeyileka