Nigerian Senators have lashed President Muhammadu Buhari over the payment of $496mn for the purchase of Tucano jets from the USA without the approval of the National Assembly.

They went further to call for his impeachment.

This followed a motion moved by lawmaker representing Edo South, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, during plenary of Thursday, for the invocation of Section 143 of 1999 Constitution, due to the Presidency’s act.

The Senator said: “It’s a violation of Section 80 subsection 1, 2, 3, 4. The procedure of the expenditure is wrong. There ought to be an appropriation before such an expenditure. I hereby request that the Senate President should invoke Section 18 of the Constitution.”

Earlier, there was an executive communication during the plenary on Thursday, on the request of the President on the inclusion of USD 496,374,470 (equivalent of N151,394,494,335.00) in the year 2018 Appropriation Bill for the purchase of Super Tucano Aircraft from the US Government, read by Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan.

Reacting on the development, lawmaker representing Enugu North, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, said: “This Tucano helicopters are to be brought in 2020, why include it now in appropriation. This is an impeachable offense.”

Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central, in his comment, said that President Buhari’s action was a breach of constitution. He said: “We are not ignorant of the security challenges that is going on in the country and how it affects the stability of our country. I appreciate the efforts of the Federal Government to bring an end to the killings in Nigeria but this is no reason to breach the Constitution.”

The matter was however forwarded to the Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters.

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