Dogara calls for caution over Saraki assets saga

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara yesterday said there was the need for caution and meticulous examination of all relevant facts surrounding the ongoing trial of the senate president, Bukola Saraki in the Code of Conduct tribunal over assets declaration. Dogara, who said the common good of the country ought to be put at the front burner, said the senate president had demonstrated that the rule of law supersedes any other position by his appearance before the tribunal last week. He spoke yesterday at the resumption of the 6-week House recess, where he also commended his colleagues for their cautious approach to the senate president’s saga that helped de-escalate the whole issue. “The barometer of the polity has been on the rise of late because of certain developments concerning the arraignment of the President of the Senate. “While commending the President of the Senate for submitting himself to the jurisdiction of the Code of Conduct Tribunal in the recognition that no person is above the law, I wish to caution that there is need for great circumspection in times such as this in order to maintain proper focus in pursuit of the common good,” he said. The speaker expressed the House’s full support for the present government’s effort in sanitizing the polity through the war against corruption, impunity and other vices. But as legislators, he added, saddled with constitutional role of making and reforming the law, “we expect that these institutions, which are the creation of these laws, would prove their capacity for fairness, justice and strict adherence to the rule of law in order not to endanger our democracy.” On the reverting to the Treasury Single Account (TSA) ordered by the president by all revenue-generating agencies, the speaker said it was a commendable move to block the problem of “uncontrollable revenue leakages” that became a thorn to the country’s economic prosperity drive.