{"id":2204,"date":"2024-08-20T08:54:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T08:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/?p=2204"},"modified":"2024-08-20T08:54:13","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T08:54:13","slug":"stop-%e2%82%a621-million-monthly-payment-or-face-legal-action-falana-threatens-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/2024\/08\/20\/stop-%e2%82%a621-million-monthly-payment-or-face-legal-action-falana-threatens-lawmakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop \u20a621 Million Monthly Payment Or Face Legal Action \u2013 Falana Threatens Lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana has accused the National Assembly of contempt and illegality over the revelation that Nigerian Senators are receiving a monthly \u201crunning cost\u201d of \u20a621 million.<\/h3>\n

Recall that Senator Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila of Kano State had disclosed that he receives \u20a621 million every month.<\/p>\n

Reacting, Falana threatened legal action if the payments were not halted.<\/p>\n

Speaking via a press statement, the human rights activist condemned the National Assembly\u2019s decision to increase the monthly allowances of Senators from \u20a614 million to \u20a621 million, describing the move as \u201cillegal and contemptuous.<\/p>\n

He referenced a 2021 Federal High Court ruling by Justice Chuka Obiozor which stated that only the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is authorised to determine the salaries and allowances of federal legislators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Senate, the House of Representatives, and the National Assembly Service Commission have no power, close or semblance of power, and cannot determine, direct, command, and\/or instruct the RMAFC or any person howsoever to make, determine, and\/or fix the salaries, wages, remuneration, running cost, or allowances of the National Assembly,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Falana stated, quoting the court judgment.<\/p>\n

Speaking further, the legal practitioner said that despite the court order, the current leadership of the National Assembly disregarded the ruling by further inflating Senators\u2019 running costs, saying that this is not only illegal but a blatant contempt of court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn utter contempt of the orders of the Federal High Court, the current leadership of the National Assembly increased the salaries and allowances of a Senator from \u20a614 million to \u20a621 million per month,<\/em>\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

He highlighted the inconsistencies between the 2024 Appropriation Act and the alleged payments, stressing that there is \u201cno provision whatsoever for a monthly payment of \u20a621 million running costs to every Senator.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He added, \u201cSince the running cost was not fixed by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, it is unconstitutional and contemptuous of the valid and subsisting order of the Federal High Court.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Falana\u2019s statement also drew attention to the contrast between the legislators\u2019 jumbo pay and the newly enacted Minimum Wage Act, which sets the minimum wage for workers at \u20a670,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving just enacted the Minimum Wage Act that stipulates N70,000 for workers, the jumbo emolument of N21 million for federal legislators will compound the crisis of inequality in the country,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he warned.<\/p>\n

Falana then called on the National Assembly to immediately comply with the court\u2019s ruling and adjust the Senators\u2019 remuneration to reflect the country\u2019s economic realities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lawmakers should comply with the law of the land. Otherwise, we shall soon embark on contempt proceedings as the legislators are not above the law of the land,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana has accused the National Assembly of contempt and illegality over the revelation that Nigerian Senators are receiving a monthly \u201crunning cost\u201d of \u20a621...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2206,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2204\/revisions\/2206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}