The senate cannot indict Vice President Atiku Abubakar is the verdict of the majority of the upper legislative chamber of Nigeria.
In a balanced Tuesday debate on the Senate Adhoc Committee Report on the mismanagement of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), key members of the upper legislative chamber pointed out the equivocal aspects of the report. They made references to Senator Titus Olupitan's dissenting report that the President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was as guilty as the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the misappropriation of the revenue allocated to the PTDF from 1999 to date. The majority of the senators agreed with the recommendations of the Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba-led Committee as contained in the 54-page report. But majority of the senators said the Committee had no powers to indict Vice President Atiku Abubakar without the due process of the legal prosecution, to try him for "aiding and abetting the diversion of $145 million (about N18.5 billion) of the PTDF money"Â. They concurred that if Vice President Atiku Abubakar could appear before the senate, then President Olusegun Obasanjo should also have appeared before them to defend himself.
Senator Adolphus Wabara was most vocal in his resentment against the committee's equivocal statement on the case of President Olusegun Obasanjo. He said the report was disjointed and partial.
"Nobody is above the law,"Â Senator Wabara said.
In their consensus, majority of the senators called for the amendment of the report.
Posted March 7th, 2007 by MichaelChima
