The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to stop alleged payment of N14.2 million monthly allowances to former Plateau State governor, Senator Joshua Dariye, who is serving out a 10-year prison sentence for corruption by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
In June, an FCT high court convicted Dariye for diverting N1.162 billion state ecological funds while he was governor.
In the suit, SERAP claimed the convict is still receiving the N750,000 salary and N13.5 million monthly allowances from the Nigerian Senate six months after his conviction.
The civil society organisation alleged that Dariye is being paid N85.5 million as allowances since his conviction.
The former governor and the National Assembly Service Commission (NASSC), are joined as defendants in the suit filed last Friday, in which SERAP said Saraki and the NASSC are trying to override Nigerian law and the judgment of our court by continuing to pay Mr Dariye’s allowances while he serves out a 10-year prison term and unable to sit and perform the functions of a senator.
“This action undermines the rule of law and is a great moral failure because it sends a message that corruption pays—it’s the opposite of Nigerian Constitutional principles and international obligations,” it stated.
