Reverse Alleged Fraudulent Privatisation Programmes, Falana Tells Senate

Foremost Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has asked the upper chamber to reverse alleged fraudulent privatisation programmes carried out in the country.

Recall that Senate had in 2011 set up a committee to investigate the privatisation and commercialisation activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to 2011.

The committee, which was chaired by Senator Lawan, had said it discovered some sharp practices in the exercise, ranging from alleged fraud and abuse of power.

As a result, the upper chamber advised the Federal Government to reverse some of the privatisation programmes.

In a letter dated April 28 and addressed to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, the senior lawyer urged the Senate to set up an agency that would look into the reversal.

Falana called on the Red Chamber to mount pressure on the executive to act on its report on Nigeria’s past privatisation programmes.

The letter reads: “The Senate should use legislative tools to put pressure on the Executive” to implement the committee report.

“The lawmakers should enact an Act to facilitate the establishment of a body that would actualize the reversal of all past privatizations which your (Lawan’s) Committee found were characterized by abuses, illegality, and fraud.

“The Senate should use legislative tools to put pressure on the Executive to implement the recommendations of the “REPORT OF THE AD-HOC COMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATION OF THE PRIVATIZATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION ACTIVITIES OF THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC ENTERPRISES (BPE) FROM 1999 TO 2011.

“That the National Assembly should enact an Act to facilitate the establishment of a body that would actualize the reversal of all past privatizations which your Committee found were characterized by abuses, illegality, and fraud, pursuant to Section 16(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.”