…Cautions on repentant Boko Haram members
By Egena Sunday Ode
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Monday described as funny and serious, allegations that the National Assembly collected $10 million bribe to pass the Petroleum Industry (PIB).
The bill which prescribed three percent of oil upstream revenues for the host communities is now an Act of the National Assembly as it was assented to last week by President Muhammadu Buhari.
An online publication had reported at the weekend that $10 million was paid in cash to members of the National Assembly through the Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila accelerate passage of the bill despite widespread opposition to a clause that granted only three percent of upstream oil companies’ operating income to host communities.
The online news platform further alleged that the payment of the monies was facilitated by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.
But speaking to newsmen after meeting with President Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, Lawan dismissed the allegation, saying that while the executive and the legislature are working assiduously to promote freedom of speech, he took exception to unwarranted and unprovable false and fake information being fed to the Nigerian public.
He said: “But of course, bigger legacies will be that the orientation of Nigerians is such that they are free to say whatever they want to say about their government, about their leaders, and so on and so forth. And that we have really established ourselves as an administration, where people can say anything or everything about the President about the administration about members of National Assembly, they call us names. And this is part of the intangible dividends of democracy.
“But we are determined to ensure that the space is wide open for everybody to say whatever he wants to say. But I will advise that we don’t say things that are bad. And recently somebody said $10 million was given to the Speaker and the Senate President to give to members of the National Assembly to pass 3% development fund; that is funny, but also very serious.
“I really want to take this opportunity to take exceptions to those kinds of unwarranted, unprovable false and fake information being fed to the Nigerian public. And the danger people will face with this is you cause unnecessary damage to the reputation of people.”
The Senate President also disclosed that security, party matters, 2022 budget, and governance issues dominated his meeting with President Buhari.
Lawan said the All Progressives Congress ( APC) is capable of registering 100 million members in the coming months saying “We are breaking new grounds we are getting and attracting more and more members very solid, high profile people from other political parties, especially the People’s Democratic Party, into the APC. And this is to show the confidence that Nigerians place in our party.
He also expressed confidence that before President Buhari’s administration winds up in 2023, the security situation in the country would have been stabilized.
The Senate President equally cautioned on the steps necessary to be taken before admitting repentant terrorists into the larger society.
“On the security issue. We have seen mass surrender from Boko Haram members. I must say Boko Haram is coming to an end.
“Yes, I’m optimistic that Boko Haram not only Boko Haram, the insurgency because in addition to Boko Haram ISWAP, and probably other tangential groups like that, I’m sure the new strategy by the current leadership of the armed forces are working on Boko Haram heavy losses leader and probably have a lot so many commanders.
“Some of them think they should just throw in the towel. Therefore, it’s one of those very successful stories of the fight against insurgency in the northeast. We have asked for improvements in resources, we have asked for changing of guards in the area of those who are at the top of the echelon of the security services, particularly the armed forces.
“And we have gotten that so I believe that this is one of the success stories. This is real that is happening. What we need to do is to have a clearly defined national policy and how we deal with this.
“Because unless we have a strategy of dealing with this, we may be overwhelmed. And it could deny us the opportunity of getting the best out of this surrendering. What do we need to do? We have to be prepared for the human resources that we have to make available.
“We need to screen to ensure that Those who are genuine and those who may just follow in for some reasons, but I don’t subscribe to the idea of saying forget about people who are surrendering all of them are criminals and the rest of it in the law of wars or something when somebody surrenders, you have something to surrender.
“And of course, maybe you’ll do some profiling and find out whether this is someone genuine. So I believe that we should give people the benefit of the doubt.
“But we should also be very circumspect on those who may not be genuine in this, but we should accept people when they come and take the appropriate measures, get the right strategies on how to deal with the integration of such people into the community.
“Don’t throw them just into the community like that, because you need to do some other things to ensure that everybody is sanitized, so to speak, before they are introduced into the society, ” he said.
