• SERAP blasts proponents

By Charles Adegbite and Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

SOCIAL activist, Yinka Odumakin has described a proposed amendment of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), to allow immu­nity for presiding officers of the National Assem­bly as well as pension for the Senate President and deputy and Speaker of the House of Representatives and deputy as a desperate attempt to push Nigerians to the wall.

The proposal by the senators was an outcome of the two-day retreat on Constitution Review or­ganised by the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Consti­tution Review in Lagos at the weekend.

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Odumakin advised law­makers not to try it when he spoke with Daily Sun yesterday. “How can they be asking for pension when there areNigerians who have not received salary for a year, despite the fact that the minimum wage is still N18,000. It is a sign that they are insensitive to the suffering of common people at this critical time when the nation is facing serious economic crisis.”

On immunity from crim­inal prosecution, Oduma­kin insisted “there should not be immunity for gov­ernors and that nobody should be above the law, as long as you have come to serve us, now, they are now talking of immunity for lawmakers.”

Meanwhile, Socio-Eco­nomic Rights and Account­ability Project (SERAP) has described the proposals as “self-serving and despica­ble.” SERAP, in a statement by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, called on Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara to “show leadership and refocus the National Assembly to be able to perform their leg­islative functions in a man­ner that will rid the country of impunity for corruption and not embrace or toler­ate it. Granting senators and Representatives im­munity and life pensions would neither enhance governance accountability nor contribute to the bet­terment of Nigerians.”