The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay, has declared that the Senate has neither the power nor authority to summon him to appear before it.Professor Sagay said emphatically that he cannot be intimidated by the lawmakers.
He therefore asked them to get legal advisers to check sections 88 and 89 of the constitution to get advice on the limitation of their powers in this regard.
Prof. Sagay further explained that in making the statement which seemed to have offended some senators, he was merely exercising his constitutional right to express his opinion.
He challenged anyone offended by his statement to approach a court of law, insisting that the Senate cannot constitute itself into prosecutor and judge, vowing not to succumb to illegal and unconstitutional acts.
The Senate had during its plenary on Wednesday summoned Prof. Sagay over his comments on Senate’s activities.
The lawmakers unanimously decided to summon Sagay after a Point of Order raised by the Deputy Leader, Bala ibn Na’allah, calling the attention of senators to a newspaper report where Sagay stated that the “Senate is full of people with questionable characters.”
Sagay made the statement in reaction to the lawmakers’ refusal, on Tuesday, to screen and confirm the 27 Resident Electoral Commissioners of Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He added in the report that that the position of the Senate on the screening of the INEC Commissioners was “childish and irresponsible.” (Channelstv)