The Nigerian Senate, has reply Jega, denying allegation of bribery. They dare him to publish names of senators who had demanded bribes, failure of which he should apologise to the lawmakers. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, said it was an allegation that the lawmakers were used to.
“Thank God you said it was an allegation, and that is what it remains. We will never stop getting allegations. So, when someone makes an allegation now, why should I react? This is not new. He is not saying anything new, people have been saying that before,” he said.
Principal officers of the Senate and chairmen of committees including the Chief Whip, Sola Adeyeye, and the Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Bwacha, also denied demanding and taking bribes.
The Majority Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, said he would first study the context in which Jega said what he said before responding to the allegation. But the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Chukwuka Utazi, denied taking bribes and challenged Nigerians to ask from the EFCC and the ICPC if they had given him bribes.
Utazi said, “I did not work with Jega in the same National Assembly, so if he had said such, it should be the people in the 7th Assembly who worked with him. If you want to confirm whether that (Utazi collecting bribe) is true, go to the (Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim) Magu and the ICPC, and ask them whether I have collected anything from them or not.”
Also denying the allegation, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Baba Garbai, said he was at the event where Jega made the allegation. He however referred one of our correspondents to the Senate’s spokesman to speak for the lawmakers.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Barau Jibrin, could not be reached on the telephone as his line indicated that it had been switched off on Monday evening.
In his denial, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Ajayi Boroffice, stated that his committee always funded its oversight trips. He however said gifts were accepted based on the discretion of the host.
Source: Punch
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