Reps committee chair bars colleagues from questioning Malami on EndSARS, other matters

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, was on Monday shielded from answering questions on the EndSARS protests by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Justice, Ozurigbo Ugonna (APC, Imo), during the budget defence session.

Mr Malami had appeared before the committee to defend the budget of his ministry, and members of the committee used the opportunity to raise some questions.

However, the chairman shut down all the questions put to the minister.

Ademorin Kuye (APC, Lagos) had faulted the speech of Mr Malami, noting that it failed to address the 2020 EndSARS protests.

“I istened to your opening remarks, as beautiful as this opening remarks is, I observed with great reservations that an event that took place, that shocked the very foundation of our democracy, the EndSARS protests was never mentioned at all in your opening remarks. I am of the view that this is an event that should take front row in justice, rule of law and democracy.

He also asked Mr Malami about the anti-torture law.

Mr Kuye also flagged the N2.5 billion proposed for the outsourcing of cases by the ministry, despite the number of lawyers in the ministry.

Furthermore, he flagged the N174 million spent on decongestion of prison in 2021.

“I saw the N49.3 million appropriated for local training courses in the 2021 budget, N35.5 million has been released. And still, despite this training for our lawyers, we still see that a lot of the jobs are still outsourced to lawyers.

“We spent N2.5 billion for legal services. In your speech, you mentioned some limitations against lawyers of the ministry,” he said.

Chiyere Igwe (PDP, Rivers) also raised questions on recovered loot and the controversies surrounding the Paris Club refund.

While ruling, Mr Ugonna said the questions will be answered after the presentation of the 2022 estimate.

“Colleagues, I think the questions are noted. I will now ask you (Malami) to proceed to the 2022 budget presentation. We will come to that,” he said.

After the minister presented the 2022 estimates, the chairman still prevented him from answering the questions.

According to Mr Ugonna, the lawmakers failed to restrict the questions to the subject matter.

The lawmakers were denied the opportunity to scrutinise or ask further questions on the estimate presented by Mr Malami.

“Honourable colleagues, you will agree with me that members have raised some issues, including questions that are not in what is before us today. In view of the above, it is imperative that we will engage the minister at another day to holistically discuss these issues.”

The ruling of the chairman caused some members to raise a point of order.

They were, however, ignored by the chairman, who was adamant in ensuring Mr Malami did not answer questions.