CCT & CCB Law Amendment in Senate to Cover Saraki's Acts – Senator Opens Up

The spokesperson for the Senate Unity Forum, Senator Kabir Marafa, on Saturday evening urged Nigerians to discountenance the ongoing plans by the Red Chamber of the National Assembly to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau/Conduct of Conduct Tribunal Act as it would be a wasted exercise.

He went ahead to alleged that the amendment is to introduce immunity clause for the Senate President.

Marafa, an APC Senator representing Zamfara Central, who stated this in an interview with Punch in Abuja on Saturday, also described the proposed amendments as “dead on arrival.”

“What my colleagues are trying to do is laughable because it’s an effort in futility. It is a constitutional issue. Are they trying to amend the Constitution of Nigeria with an act of the National Assembly?

“The sections they are trying to amend are clearly stated in the constitution and could only be reviewed through a legally acceptable constitution amendment process.”

Marafa described his colleagues who had been sponsoring some bills in the Senate in recent times to save Bukola Saraki as “new comers who lack basic parliamentary knowledge and experience.”

He said, “They had listed for amendments, Public Officers Protection Act; Administration of Criminal Justice Act; Code of Conduct Bureau Act and the Code of Conduct Tribunal Act.

“Their intention is to alter all these constitutional provisions just because of an individual. How can you anchor bills amendments around an individual?

“I don’t know how they want to alter the constitution to extend immunity clause to the senate president when it is only the president, vice-president and the governors that are covered in the constitution.”

Marafa said he refused to contribute to the debate on the CCB/CCB amendments on Thursday on the floor as doing so would amount to a waste of precious time.

He said, “I refused to talk because I know they are embarking on an exercise in futility. It’s a mere jamboree and sheer waste of tax-payers money.

“Nigerians would definitely wait for them at the public hearing and they would be told that trying to make laws around an individual is a waste of the nation’s resources.”

Marafa appealed to stop making themselves a laughing stock in the public by trying to carry out legislative activities with the sole aim of frustrating the trial of Bukola Saraki at the CCT.

He added, “Instead of learning the ropes, even senior lawyers among the new senators are jumping the gun by initiating bills to save their boss [Saraki] from criminal prosecution.

“All of them should be dragged before the Senate Committee on Ethics for smearing the image of a reputable institution like the Senate.”