Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has slammed the passing of a bill seeking to give leaders of federal and state legislatures immunity from prosecution for corruption.

The group in a statement by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare said providing immunity for presiding officers against crimes of corruption was tantamount to ripping up the constitution.

“It’s a blatant assault on the rule of law and breach of public trust. The leadership of the House of Representatives must immediately withdraw this obnoxious bill. We will vigorously challenge this impunity.”

The House, yesterday, passed the constitutional amendment bill for second reading at yesterday’s plenary session.

There were, however, disagreements among members on the necessity of the bill, with some rejecting it, while others said it was needed to protect the legislative arm from “persecution”.

Leading the debate, Odebumi Olusegun, said immunity for presiding officers was in line with international best practices.

Majority Leader, Ado Doguwa, said members should not shy away from discussing matters that concerned the National Assembly.

He said if immunity covered the president and the governors, and protected them from being distracted while doing their jobs, the same should be extended to presiding officers of the parliament.

Doguwa said if the legislature was the backbone of democracy, then the presiding officers should enjoy immunity as well.

Minority Whip, Toby Okechukwu, said in 2015, the bill was passed but was not signed. He said former presiding officers of the Senate were choked with litigation which affected the entire parliament.

Okechukwu said though the officers were later acquitted, the activities of the Senate and indeed the National Assembly were affected. He said though the Power and Privileges Act protects members  from what they say at the chambers, the bill was to protect the institution of the legislature.

Opposing the bill, the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu  said “what is important to the Nigerian people is security of lives and property and not immunity for presiding officers.”

He said Nigerians were being killed on the daily basis and that the clamour to hold people accountable was on the increase.

“I think we should jettison this bill as there is nothing presiding officers are doing that cannot be accounted for,” he said.

Sergius Ogun (PDP-Edo) said that at a time Nigerians were asking for the removal of immunity from the executive, the legislature should not be asking for it.

Ogun said  immunity was already being abused saying there was no reason why a sitting president or governor should not go to jail for a crime.

He said immunity for presiding officers  was not what  the parliament needed at the moment.

Also, Bob Solomon said he was against that idea of immunity for public officers, like the president and governors.