A human rights group, People’s Right to Life Development Foundation (PELDEF) has written a letter to the Congressional Black Caucus of the United States of America Congress, canvassing visa ban for Nigerian Senate principal officers over alleged use of double standards in the running of the Upper Chamber.
The group anchored its request on the use of double standard by Saraki leadership to steer governance in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
It called for urgent sanction of the Senate leadership citing the failure by Dr Saraki in alleged connivance with ten other principal officers of the senate to refuse to inaugurate Hon Bassey Etim as member of the red chamber on the valid order of a Federal high court in Uyo more than four months ago.
The group said that Saraki though was under obligation to obey court order directing him to swear in Bassey Etim but that he refused to perform his constitutional duty over what it called ‘a laughable’ ground of seeking legal advice from ordinary individuals after a competent judiciary institution had pronounced on the case, thereby usurping judiciary function.
PELDEF said Saraki’s excuse to delay inauguration of Etim four months after a competent court of jurisdiction had so ordered was laughable because the same Saraki-led senate had obeyed similar order from the same court of jurisdiction and status to swear in senators from Kogi State.
In the letter written to the Congressional Black Caucus of the United States of America Congress, signed by its Chairman of Board of Trustees, Comrade Ifot Ifot, the group urged the body to sanction Saraki and his principal officers on the account that his (Saraki) mode of operation has the capacity to truncate the country’s democracy.
Specifically, the group called on the US Congress to ban the leadership of the Nigerian Senate from entering the US since they had refused to respect the rule of law.
The letter reads in part: “Sir, four months after the court directed that Bassey Etim should be sworn in as a Senator of the Federal republic of Nigeria, the leadership of the Senate ignored the court order, but rather continues to allow the sacked senator to participate in the activities of the senate as a Senator.
“This act of impunity is un-becoming of the highest law making body of Nigeria.
“If left unchecked and without any sanction on the leadership of the Senate, it may create a dangerous precedence that will not only derail Nigeria’s democracy but will also create untold abuse of human dignity in Nigeria.
“Accordingly, we call for a severe sanction of the senate leadership including banning of the leadership of the Nigerian senate from entering the United States of America in order to serve as deterrence to others”.
