BREAKING! Akpabio, Abbas and others dragged to court for increasing national assembly budget by N147bn

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 20 concerned Nigerians have initiated legal action against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, “for unilaterally and arbitrarily increasing the allocation for lawmakers from N197bn to N344bn, their highest since the return of democracy in 1999.”

FRESHREPORTERS NEWS understands that Akpabio and Abbas are being taken to court for themselves and on behalf of all members of the National Assembly.

The lawmakers had last month elevated their allocation from N197 billion proposed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for them in the budget to N344bn. The lawmakers will in total draw N514bn from the 2024 budget. The lawmakers also in 2023 arbitrarily increased their own budget from the originally proposed N169bn to N228bn.

In the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/68/2024 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, the Plaintiffs are asking the court to determine whether the lawmakers, in the exercise of their powers over appropriation/money bills, can unilaterally increase their own budget without the re-presentation of the budget by the Executive.

The Plaintiffs are asking the court for a declaration that the National Assembly, in the exercise of its powers over appropriation/money bills, cannot unilaterally increase its own budget without the re-presentation of the budget by the President in line with section 81 of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended].

The Plaintiffs are asking the court for a declaration that the action of the National Assembly, unilaterally increasing its own budget from N197 billion to N344 billion, without the re-presentation of the budget by the President is a breach of the democratic principles of separation of powers and checks and balances.

The Plaintiffs are seeking “an order of perpetual injunction restraining and preventing the National Assembly from unilaterally increasing its own budget, in the exercise of its powers over all appropriation/money bills, without the re-presentation of such appropriation/money bills by the President in line with the Nigerian Constitution.”

In the suit, the Plaintiffs are arguing that: “Allowing the National Assembly to continue to unilaterally and arbitrarily increase its own budget would fundamentally undermine the letter and spirit of the Nigerian Constitution, public trust, and the rule of law.”

The Plaintiffs are also arguing that the arbitrary and self-serving increase by the lawmakers of their own allocation offends the Code of Conduct for Public Officers [Fifth Schedule Part 1] of the Nigerian Constitution, oath of office, and the democratic principles of separation of powers and checks and balances.

According to the Plaintiffs, unless the reliefs sought are granted, the National Assembly will continue to breach the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and the rule of law, and at the expense of millions of Nigerians living in poverty…[CONTINUE READING HERE]>>