The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has petitioned the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to investigate alleged misconduct by some members of the Senate over the reported removal of provisions mandating real-time electronic transmission of election results from the Electoral Act amendment Bill.
According to SERAP, the provisions were allegedly deleted during plenary after a majority of senators had voted in support of their inclusion. The organization claimed the removal occurred without debate, raising concerns about due process and legislative transparency.
In a statement signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, and addressed to the Chairman of the CCB, Abdullahi Usman Bello, SERAP urged the Bureau to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation into the actions of any National Assembly members and executive officers allegedly involved.
The group also called for a probe into reported discrepancies between the harmonised versions of certain tax reform bills passed by the National Assembly and the copies later signed into law and gazetted by the Federal Government. It argued that such inconsistencies raise serious constitutional and ethical questions.
SERAP alleged potential violations including conflict of interest, abuse of office, non-disclosure of interests, lack of due process and erosion of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers in the exercise of legislative duties.
The organization stated that its petition was submitted pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 9 of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers contained in the Fifth Schedule, Part 1 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as sections 5 and 13 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.
“Where lawmaking is shaped by abuse of office and conflict of interest, it ceases to be a legitimate exercise of constitutional and fiduciary responsibility and becomes a legal and ethical infraction,” the statement read.
