Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, on Sunday, denied online media reports that he allegedly misappropriated N8bn being fund meant for the review of the 1999 Constitution alongside
his fellow committee members at both chambers in the 7th National Assembly.
Ekweremadu, in a statement by his Special Adviser ( Media and Publicity), Uche Anichukwu, said the report did not come to him as a surprise because he had warned of moves to publish false and defamatory information against him.
According to the statement, “These elements are currently making desperate efforts, including scavenging through Senate accounts and Committees he has ever served on, with the sole aim of misrepresenting information, maligning, and running him out of office by hook or crook or force him to resign from office as the Deputy President of the Senate.”He said despite the fact that though the latest allegations appear to be an institutional matter of the National Assembly, it is not surprising that the report, was a deliberate manipulation targeted at targeted at him.
He said, “There was no “pocketing” of N8bn by members of the Committee on Constitution Review in the 7th Senate. Such fathom pocketing of public funds is a figment of the peddlers and their paymasters.
“For emphasis, the Senate Committee on Constitution Review does not have any account domiciled with the Guarantee Trust Bank as alleged by the report.
“For clarity, constitution amendment as an expenditure item is covered by the Appropriation Act of each year and disbursed by the appropriate bureaucracy of the National Assembly for the purpose it was appropriated in accordance with extant rules.”
He described as false, the submission in the report that the lifespan of a parliamentary committee ends with the submission of its report.
He said members of the 7th National Assembly and the 36 State Assemblies did not fail in their legislative duties towards the realization of the 4th Alteration of the 1999 Constitution.
The members, he added, diligently and successfully piloted the most elaborate amendments to the 1999 Constitution through all the legislative due process and that they were indeed amendments that held great promises for the nation’s democracy.
“Therefore, the ambush and lynching of the 4th Alteration Bill by a conspiracy of divisive agenda and malevolent political forces through the withdrawal of an already given presidential assent cannot be described as failure on the part of the National Assembly. Doing so is tantamount to barking up the wrong tree.”, he added
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