The Nigerian Senate has been admonished to pay more attention to its legislative duties and ensure that it always forms a quorum, rather than dabble into issues that are strictly within the purview of the executive arm of government.
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) gave this admonition in its reaction to the Senate resolution on the fine imposed on communication company, MTN and advised the Senate to desist from interfering with the executive in running of state affairs but to concentrate more on its duties of providing adequate legislation for the growth of the nation.
It said in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke that any company which is found to have violated extant laws must abide by the consequence of such actions, as “MTN violated currency regulations by sending $8.1 billion abroad illegally”
BMO advised the Senate to refrain from assuming executive powers in the management of State affairs and “rather focus on forming more quorum so members can attend to key national issues and give value for money being spent on them.
“The Senate is reminded that, not only will MTN pay its fine as ascribed by the CBN, banks involved in this illegal repatriation have been fined and sums debited at source”.
BMO noted that “the issue in contention is not a fine but repatriation of foreign exchange initially thought to have been fraudulently secured through local banks and the derivation arising from that is that MTN would have been made to pay back the $8.1 billion while the local equivalent value would have been refunded to MTN.
Now it would seem that the matter of repatriation had been resolved by the CBN so the suggestion of the $800 million is a surcharge on the transaction rather than a repatriation”.