Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday said the National Assembly failed in its oversight functions by its failure to uncover the $2.1 billion arms deal scam in the office of National Security Adviser (NSA) before the matter was blown open.

Saraki made this remark after the Senate considered a motion by Senator Suleiman Nazif (Bauchi North) in which the senator alleged that a whole lot of 11,886 federal projects valued at the cost of N7.78 trillion had been abandoned.

Nazif blamed the trend on violation of Section 16(1b) of the Public Procurement Act of 2007 which he said provided that procurement plans must be supported by prior budgeting appropriation.

Therefore, the Senate urged the federal government to set up a project performance and monitoring task force to severely punish contractors who collect mobilisation funds and thereafter abscond. According to the resolution, punishing contractors will curb unbridled wastage, corruption and incessant cases of abandoned projects and also serves as a deterrent to others.

However, Saraki in his remark on the motion said such a trend had continued because the National Assembly had been failing in its responsibility to provide effective oversight on the activities of the executive arm of government. Saraki also said the Senate was culpable in the scam involving sharing of $2.1 billion money meant for arms purchase as a result of its failure to live up to its constitutional responsibility. He therefore challenged his colleagues to have a rethink in this eighth Senate by ensuring that committees live up to their oversight responsibilities.

He said: "Distinguished colleagues, I want to thank you very much for your contributions but really, distinguished colleagues, I think we have shied away from one of the main reasons because some of the projects were duly appropriated for in the budget and embarked upon by various ministries and agencies. And the motion, whether we like it or not, is a partial indictment on us in the National Assembly and we must accept that because these projects that we are talking about, under Section 88 1(a) (b) of the Constitution, it is our responsibility to oversee these projects to ensure they are not abandoned and to ensure that the funds appropriated are properly addressed.

"So, distinguished colleagues, I want us in this eight Senate to ensure that our committees carry out proper oversight and we in the leadership, we are going to ensure that we too find a way to make sure that committees do their work on oversight because truly that is the bottom line to this.

"Even the current investigation going on in the National Security Adviser's office also, whether we like it or not in a way too, the oversight function of the National Assembly is brought to question. We must play our roles in the area of oversight because if we don't do it, at the end of the day, this is what we will get.

"Please distinguished senators of the eight Senate, I want us to make a difference, that we should really carry out our oversight functions and we will put a system in place where we will be asking the committees to give us the situation of their functions and the oversight that they are doing so that these should be things of the past and we should move forward in providing a new way by which the National Assembly carries out its functions."

Also yesterday, former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, denied the allegation by former Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Bashir Yuguda,that he collected N100 million from the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, who is currently standing trial over the $2.1 billion arms deal.

Odili, who in a statement, described the allegation as false and spurious, said he had never had any dealings, either private, public or official with the embattled former NSA. "So the issue of allegedly collecting N100 million from either the former NSA or Mr. Yuguda does not arise," he said.

He however, admitted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gave the South-south Committee N100 million through him in the house of former National Chairman of PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu'azu.