By Nkwocha Anderson
A Federal High Court in Lagos has ruled that the National Assembly Service Commission has no power to fix, determine , allocate remuneration, salaries, allowances, emoluments or monetary values to the Senate and House of Representatives.
Revenues Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission. RMAFC, the court rules, is the only body responsible for determining the salaries, remuneration or allowances of the National Assembly or Political office holders.
The Court presided over Justice Chuka Obiozor gave the ruling, Friday in a case filed by Messrs Monday Ubani and John Nwokwu challenging the Constitutionality of the Bogus remuneration of members of the National Assembly.
The Judge also ruled that both the Senate and House of Representatives have no power to determine , direct or instruct the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to make, determine or fix their salaries, wages, remuneration or allowances.
Justice Obiozor therefore ruled that “In line with Section 32 (b)(d) of part 1 of third schedule of the Constitutional of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, the 2nd Defendant should forthwith downward review and fix the salaries, remuneration or allowances of the Senate and House of Representatives to reflect the economic realities in the country.
The Court also recommended that since the Members of the National Assembly has denied collecting the jumbo remunerations and allowances, the EFCC should look at their books and if it is found that they truly collect such amount of money, they should be prosecuted.
Background of the case;
The Plaintiffs had approached the Federal High Court, Lagos to challenge Constitutionality of the bogus remuneration and allowances of the members of the National Assembly. Since the inception of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, Nigerians have been demanding to know how much their Representatives in the National Assembly collect as salaries and allowances, the members of the National Assembly have kept that information as a top secret. However, in March 2018 one of the Senators – Senator Shehu Sani in an interview revealed that each Senator receives the sum of N13.5 million monthly as running cost, in addition to N750,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances. Another online publication further revealed that each Senator is entitled to the sum of N200 million annually as constituency project allowance.
Being aggrieved by this revelation, Mr. Monday Onyekachi Ubani proceeded to the Federal high Court alongside another legal Practitioner – Mr. John Nwokwu to challenge the constitutionality of this bogus amount of money collected by the members of the National assembly monthly and annually. The case was handled by Joseph Igwe Esq. led by leading Human Rights lawyers,  Mr. Femi Falana, SAN
The National Assembly filed a defence denying ever collecting such amount of money, however they failed to disclose to the Court how much they collect. The National assembly Service Commission also filed a defence denying being the one that approach and pay such amount of money to the members of the National Assembly. They also challenged the locus standi of the Plaintiffs to institute the action against them, and also contended that the Plaintiffs have no cause of action against them, urging the Court to strike out the suit.
In the judgment delivered on the 4th day of June, 2021, Hon. Justice Chuka Austine Obiozor, first dismissed the preliminary objections of the National Assembly stating that the plaintiffs have locus standi to institute the action citing the Supreme Court case of Centre for oil Pollution Watch v. NNPC. The Court held that public spirited individuals (Tax payers) has sufficient interest in ensuring that public authorities submit to the rule of law and that no public authority has power to arbitrarily or with impunity break the law or general statute.
Similar case was filed by SERAP and assigned to the same judge who held that whatever decision is reached in Messrs Ubani and Nwokwu’s case in Suit No FHC/LA/CS/690/ 2018 should bind on them.
