Senators during the Thursday’s plenary moved a motion for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari , Punch reports. The call was in r...
Senators during the Thursday’s plenary moved a motion for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari, Punch reports.
The call was in respect of him failing to get the approval for the withdrawal of $496 million from the Excess Crude Account to purchase military aircraft.
Senator Matthew Uroghide, who represents Edo South District, moved the motion.
The president had breached Section 80 of the Constitution, Uroghide said, which stipulates that all government’s spending must have gone through the legislature.
According to Premium Times, Senator Chukwuka Utazi seconded the motion, saying the president’s action “is an impeachable offence.”
President Buhari had approved the sum for the purchase of 12 Super Tucano aircraft from the US.
He had written to the senate thereafter, saying:
Recently, approval was granted by the United States government but with a deadline, within which part payment must be made otherwise the contract relapses. In the expectation that the National Assembly will have no objection to the purchase of these highly specialised aircraft, which is critical to national security, I granted anticipatory approval for the release of $496,374,470. This was paid directly into the treasury of the United States government.
I am therefore writing seeking approval of the Senate for the sum of $496,374,470 (equivalent to N151,394, 421,035) to be included in the 2018 Appropriation Bill which the National Assembly is currently finalising. The balance of the requirement for critical operational equipment is still being collated from the different security services and will be presented in the form of a supplementary appropriation bill in due cause.
Another senator, Abu Ibrahim, representing Kaduna South, however described the move as a “PDP conspiracy.”
Former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, he said, also made withdrawals from the ECA without approval from the legislature.
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