You do not have powers to summon Lamorde - Keyamo tells Senate

Read what Barr Festus Keyamo told Senate when he represented former EFCC Chairman CP Ibrahim Lamorde at the Senate yesterday.

He said: “I have great respect for the Senate. I also have great respect for this distinguished committee. Unfortunately, we have a law that is superior to all of us whether it is the Senate or the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. So as distinguished as this committee is, it is not greater than the constitution.

“The constitution is very clear as to those who can be subject to investigation by Sections 88, 89 of the constitution. By Sections 88, 89 of the constitution, the Senate has powers over two categories of persons - the first are those who are the subject of investigation. They can be summoned before the committee and the second are witnesses to appear in respect of that investigation.

“Now, those who can be the subject of investigation have to be public officers holding that office that is being investigated. In other words, if you look at Sections 88 or 89, it refers to those who are charged or intend to be charged with the responsibility of an office; so it does not talk about those were charged or who was charged with a responsibility.

“For instance, I want to ask a very simple question: If you write a petition today against Nuhu Ribadu that he was corrupt in office or Farida Waziri, can the Senate invite Farida Waziri to investigate her? It is not possible. They cannot.

“That will be the subject of a criminal investigation because they are no longer holding that office. They can only be invited as witnesses because the Senate has the power to summon anybody, and whoever the person is will appear as a witness not as the subject of investigation.

“In other words, if you are inviting Larmode, you can only properly invite him as a witness because he does not even have access to the documents again. He is no longer chairman of EFCC.

“Even if you say the petition was directed at him in his private capacity, can the Senate investigate him in his private capacity? The answer is no.

“For instance, if you are a public officer and somebody comes to report to the Senate that the public officer raped his wife. Can the Senate investigate that rape?

“The incident did not happen in his official capacity. The Senate can only refer it to the police and say this is a criminal case, because it did not occur in his official capacity.

“So it is clear that this Senate no longer has the power to summon Lamorde. The invitation, the summon, has been overtaken by events; he is no longer in office. He can no longer appear as a person being investigated in this Senate. He can only appear as a witness.

“If there is any allegation against him now, it should go to the police or the EFCC for him to be investigated purely as a criminal allegation.

“We will take advice; we will look at it and take the appropriate decision but I can tell you that the Senate itself is not in a place where their decision cannot be subjected to a review.

“The section quoted states anybody can be summoned as a witness, not as a person to be investigated. It says in the course of that investigation, anybody can be summoned as a witness to give evidence. But what they did was to send a letter of investigation.

“The Senate also has no power to send letters of invitation. They have powers to issue summons to people to appear. Can the court, for example, write a letter of invitation to anybody?

“The powers of this committee are the same powers a court of law exercises. If the court of law wants someone to appear before it, it issues summons. A court of law cannot write an invitation letter. So this Senate has no power to write letters of invitation. They should correct it.

“Do not forget that it is this same Senate that for many years did not know their powers regarding the service chiefs.

“I was the one that went to court to correct all of them. I wrote to them over and over again regarding their powers and they did not listen to me, so I went to court and corrected them.

“I am prepared to go to court at any time to correct this Senate. They don’t know their powers, I insist. You should know that I have done research on the powers of the Senate.”

We Spent 2b not 6b on Presidential Fleet - Presidency

ABUJA – The presidency has vehemently refuted the reports in several quarters that a huge sum of N6b had been lavished on the Maintenance of presidential Air fleet (PAF) in the last 6 months.

The presidency spoke through the Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.

Shehu in a statement said that only N2.3b had been spent contrary to the figures making the rounds.

He regretted that the president has had to be distracted by some “fictional report”, which he had “caused the government a lot of negative reviews especially in the online media”.

The statement further stated thus: “The government is focused on solving the many major issues our country faces in the areas of the economy, corruption and security. Yet almost every week, the Presidency has to also deal with the distractions which do nothing but distract from the task of government.

“Referring to documents he had requested from the Operational Office of the Presidential Fleet after his attention was drawn to the speculative report, Malam Shehu pointed out that the sum of N2.3 billion was released to the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation between May and November 2015. This includes releases for personnel cost, overhead and capital expenditure out of the sum of N5,190,381,386.00 appropriated for PAF on the 2015 budget.

“The documents also showed that the sum of N2,127,103,086.66 had so far been expended, leaving a balance of N172,568,912.34 from the amount released.

“However, the sum of N149,062,791.12 was transferred from the PAG’s operation account to the Treasury Single Account, following the President’s recent directive,” he said.

“He added that the sum of N23,801,122.17 remains unutilised out of the funds so far released. During the period 31 May 2015 till date, the Fleet expended the sum of N1,358,910,962.75 to settle outstanding liabilities carried over from last year till May 2015. Furthermore, the sum of N500 million was refunded to the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA for financial support rendered to the Fleet prior to release of funds from the OAGF.

“Thus, the Fleet expended the sum of N449,081,037.25 within the last months comprising N98,500,218.00 for operations, N165,373,176.91 on training and N85,500,116.75 on personnel medicals and overhead. Additionally, the sum of N99,715,493.51 was expended on aircraft maintenance, spares, and subscription services required for operations.

“Any of these documents could have been made available had the newspaper reached out to me or to any one of my colleagues. The damage to the image of government and the good management of the Presidential Air Fleet could have been avoided”.

“Shehu also pointed that the number of aircrafts on the Presidential fleet was 10, not 14 as being bandied about, even as he gave the inventory of the planes to include:
PAF-AIRCRAFT INVENTORY
1. 1× 737 BBJ
2. 1× G550
3. 1× G500
4. 2× Falcon 7X
5. 1× HS 4000
6. 2× Agusta139
7. 2× Agusta 101
Total aircraft holdings 10.”