The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 20 concerned Nigerians have filed a suit against Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas for allegedly increasing the budgetary allocations to lawmakers from N197 billion to N344 billion, the highest since the return of democracy in 1999.
Akpabio and Abbas were sued for themselves and on behalf of all members of the National Assembly in the suit filed on behalf of SERAP and 20 concerned Nigerians by their lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare and Andrew Nwankwo.
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In the suit filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Abuja, the plaintiffs are asking the court to determine, among others, “whether the lawmakers, in the exercise of their powers over appropriation/money Bills, can unilaterally increase their own budgets without the re-presentation of the budget by the Executive”.
The plaintiffs are asking the court for “a declaration that the action of the National Assembly, unilaterally increasing its own budget from N197 billion to N344 billion, without the re-presentation of the budget by the President is a breach of the democratic principles of separation of powers and checks and balances.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.