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Dilemma: Court orders Malami to file charges against Dogara, others

Published

9 years ago

January 15, 2018

Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami has been ordered to file criminal charges against members of the National Assembly, including Speaker Yakubu Dogara and other prinipal officers alleged to have padded the 2016 budget.

The Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday granted leave for an order of mandamus to compel the AGF to file criminal charges against the lawmakers who allegedly padded the budget.

Malami, however, is currently being probed by the Senate and House of Reps for its complicity in the reinstatement of a corrupt civil servant Abdulrasheed Maina declared wanted years ago.

Justice Mohammed Idris made the order in favour of a social rights advocacy group,

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) had prayed the court to compel the AGF to prosecute those federal lawmakers a suspended rep, Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin alleged to have padded N481bn into the budget.

In a statement on Sunday by its Deputy Director, Adewale Timothy, SERAP said the decision by Justice Mohammed Idris last Friday has now cleared the way for SERAP to advance its case against the Federal Government on the publication of the reports of investigation into the allegations of budget padding and prosecution of indicted officers of the National Assembly.

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“The decision also grants permission to SERAP to seek an order to compel the Federal Government to ‘closely monitor and scrutinise the spending of N131bn (accrued from increased oil benchmark) allocated for additional non-constituency projects expenditure, to remove the possibility of corruption’ ,”he said.

SERAP in its suit marked FHC/L/CS/1821/2017, argued that “unless the principal officers indicted in the alleged padding of the 2016 budget are prosecuted and any stolen public funds recovered, the Federal Government will not be able to stop padding of future budgets.

“Alleged corruption in the budget process will not just melt away or simply evaporate without addressing the fundamental issue of impunity of perpetrators.

It believes that government taking this step will reignite the fight against corruption and fulfil a cardinal campaign promise.

The court decision will put the AGF in a strait before the NASS who appear all too ready to indict him in the reinstatement saga now known as Mainagate.