I won’t sign 2021 budget without provisions for ASUU, SARS demands – Gbajabiamila

Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said he will not sign the 2021 budget if the appropriation bill does not make provisions for families of victims of SARS brutality and the demands by university lecturers’ union.

He said this during the House’s plenary on Tuesday.

The Speaker said the police were not above the law and that they must be accountable to the people.

He said, “I will not sign a 2021 budget that does not have adequate provisions to compensate those who have suffered violence from police in the last decade.”

He said he would be leading a delegation of lawmakers to pay condolence visits to families of some of those killed by the police, stressing that they would be honoured after the visits.

According to him, the National Assembly would establish a system of citizen-led accountability for the Nigerian Police Force because in a democracy the nation sets out to build, the police were not above the citizenry.

Gbajabiamila added that the police were servants of the people and not above the law, but guardians.

Hr stressed that as the government endeavoured to hold the nation’s police to higher standards of professional conducts, they must also make sure they provided for their welfare.