Group asks former Senator Emordi to refund N65 million, Says its Criminal
The Vice Chairman of the African-American Minorities Education Foundation, Dennis Chikere, who described the action as criminal, said in Abuja that the organisation conducted discreet investigations at the National Assembly when the news broke that Mrs Emordi collected N45million after she was sacked .
“It is not amusing that while some indigent students cannot pay money to take part in the on-going National Examination Council (NECO) examination, Nigerians were bombarded with stories of an illegal senator collecting as much as N45 million and this prompted us to engage in discreet confirmation of this report. Indeed, we discovered that she actually collected N16 million in addition to the N45 million she took under several subheads and also went ahead to collect March and April salaries, totalling over N63 million, after she was sacked by the court and we challenge her to come out in the open and fault our findings,” Mr Chikere said.
“What she did is illegal, criminal, vexatious and indeed impersonation, as she was not a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria when she collected this money as stipulated in Section 57 of the 1999 constitution. She collected money meant for a duly elected Senator when she knew she has no business in the National Assembly from March 25, 2010, when the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of the Election Tribunal that sent her packing from the Senate”, Mr Chikere said.
Section 57 of the constitution, which deals with unqualified person sitting or voting in the National Assembly, reads: “ Any person who sits or votes in the Senate or the House of Representatives, knowing or having reasonable grounds for knowing that he is not entitled to do so, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to such punishment as shall be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly”.
The activist also condemned what he said was the non-challant attitude of Mrs Emordi to public outcry over her decision to stay put in the Senate after the judgement of the Court until the Attorney General intervened, and advised Nigerians to be wary of such politicians as the 2011 election draws near.
“This her conduct to the people of Anambra North, the person she stole his mandate and even to the larger Nigerian society clearly shows that she is a desperado that cannot be trusted with any public office at any level, more so after she has exhibited such level of disdain for the rule of law,” he said.
lected from 2007 is illegal because the Court has ruled that she never got any mandate to get near the chambers of the National Assembly”.
The group said if Mrs Emordi refuses to heed its advise, it will take up the matter and ensure the full weight of the law is brought to bear on the matter.