Nigerian Senate knew about 12 Tucano jets but gave no go ahead

Nigerian Senate President, Bukola Saraki has revealed that the Senate was aware of the President Muhammadu Buhari led executive arm's decision to acquire 12 Tucano fighter jets. He, however, said the Senate didn't give a go ahead before the jets were paid for.

In a video of the plenary session on Thursday, April 26, 2018, Saraki informed members of the Senate that he got a message from the US congress wanting to meet with the NASS leadership over President Buhari's request for the purchase of the Tucano jets.

The Senate President said he learnt about the request to purchase between August and September 2017 when he was in the US and he met with the US congress alongside the leadership of the House of Representatives.

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Saraki stressed that between the time he was informed of the request to purchase and the time of payment by the executive arm, he believes the President should have consulted adequately with the lawmakers before going ahead to make the payment.

ALSO READ: Lawmakers say Buhari's $496m military aircraft purchase is illegal

"From what has been proposed to us, we all agree that there is a breach of constitution, the question is what are the circumstances surrounding the breach of constitution and whether those circumstances surrounding the breach of constitution justifies the breach of constitution," Saraki said.

However, the Senate President admitted that there are serious concerns on security of the nation, hence the need for the legislative and executive arm to move towards arresting the situation.

He said: "As Senator Shehu Sani said and we all agree that there is definitely security concerns in our country."

Nigerian Senate knew about 12 Tucano jets but gave no go ahead

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