BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Some hundreds of protesters on Tuesday stormed the main entrance gate to the National Assembly (NASS), preventing lawmakers, staff and visitors from gaining entry.
The protesters, believed to have been sponsored allegedly by the Presidency witnessed policemen giving them protective cover to the National Assembly Complex with heavy security.
The protesters under the aegis of “Citizens Actions to Take Back Nigeria, CATBAN,” got to the gate of the NASS in 11 luxury buses and 911 lorry and carried placards with different inscription some which read; “Constituency projects is now corruption, it must stop”; “Nigerians are not represented in the sharing of the loot via constituency projects” and “National Assembly not for armed runners.”
The protesters, who a member of the NASS said were been used by the Presidency to divert attention from serious national security crises, however said they were protesting against the alleged padding of the 2018 budget by the National Assembly.
Convener of the group, Comrade Ibrahim Garba Wala, said that members of the NASS no longer represent the people of Nigeria and therefore called on Principal Officers of the two chambers of the NASS to immediately step down from their offices, adding that they have shown that they lack the requisite credibility and moral capacity to hold those positions of authority.
Wala said concerns raised by President Muhammadu Buhari while signing the 2018 Budget, showed that the National Assembly is stealing the common patrimony of the people through constituency projects.
He further said; “The President told Nigerians that our Federal legislators connived among themselves and removed priority developmental projects carefully prepared by the federal government to impact on the lives of the citizenry.
“As a civil society organization, we feel pained that this year’s budget followed the regular path of stealing in the guise of bogus constituency projects.
In spite of the wishy-washy response of the National Assembly justifying its distortion of the 2018 Budget, there is ample evidence to show that they shortchanged their constituents who elected them to make laws for the good governance of the country.”
Wala called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), to investigate the matter, saying that it was necessary for such action to be taken to save the National Assembly from public ridicule.
The protest turned later rowdy when protesters learnt that the leadership of the National Assembly was not willing to give them a response thus some of them attempted to climb the main gate, while others were seen shaking the gate vigorously to force their way into the premises, but were eventually stopped by the police manning the gate, who had to release teargas into the air to disperse them.
