By Chukwudi Nweje
Bukola Saraki Media Office, yesterday, rebuffed a statement credited to the Buhari Media Office (BMO) that the former president of the eighth Senate tried to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017 over an anticipatory authorisation for the payment of $496,374,470 without legislative approval for the purchase of Tucano Jets from the United States.
BMO, issued a statement, yesterday, entitled: ‘Tucano Jets: Saraki lied, actually wanted to impeach Buhari on the purchase.’
However, Yusuph Olaniyonu, head, Bukola Saraki Media Office, described the claims as “mere revisionist antic,” which depicts them as “an empty propaganda machine whose members lack substance and simple understanding of the American system.
“On the claims that there was an impeachment attempt on Buhari for granting anticipatory approval for the payment of $496,374,470 without legislative approval or any budgetary provision, there is no doubt that the act was a grave violation of the law and that no responsible legislature would ignore that infraction. Yet, contrary to the claims by the revisionists in BMO, the point of order raised by Mathew Urhoghide to discuss the infraction was not allowed for discussion by the same Saraki in other to save the president any embarrassment. We refer the public to the Punch newspaper story on the Senator session published on April 25, 2018, with the headline “Senators fault Buhari’s $496 Tucano aircraft purchase without due process.”
He noted that the United States refused to sell military equipment to the Federal Government because Nigeria was then categorised as “one of those nations whose military engaged in violation of the rights of the citizens and, therefore, were in constant violation of the Leahy’s law.
“Section 362 of Title 10 of the US Code, otherwise, called Leahy’s Law prevents the US from providing equipment, training, and other assistance to a foreign security force if the Secretary of Defence has credible information that such unit has committed a Government Violation of Human Rights. Thus, whatever discussion the US former president Donald Trump was said to have had with his Nigerian counterpart, the US policy was not about to change except the congress agreed to such change. Most important, the US would not change such an important policy without the guarantee from the beneficiary country’s legislature. If we go by the skewed time-lines of the events that led to the conclusion of the transaction for the purchase of the Tucano Jets as given by the BMO, the lies of this propaganda machine will even be more glaring.”