The Senate, on Wednesday,
described the public condemnation of its planned purchase of Sport Utility
Vehicles amounting to N5.5bn for the senators as an insult.
The Leader of the Senate, Yahaya
Abdullahi, stated this in an interview with journalists in his office in Abuja.
Abdullahi said the status of a
senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not undeserving of an SUV.
He said each of the 109 senators
in the upper chamber would get one SUV, which would be paid for at the end of
their four-year legislative tenure.
He said the burden on the
shoulders of the senator was not a mean task and that an SUV for their work was
not too much.
The Senate Leader said, “What is
the problem there? It is an insult to say that a senator of the Federal
Republic cannot ride a jeep in Nigeria. It is an insult. The N5.5bn is from the
National Assembly fund and it is budgeted for every year, which they will pay
back at the end of the tenure.
“I was a permanent secretary. I
know what ministers get; we cannot even compare ourselves to ministers because
we are higher than the minister(s). For you to say that a senator of the
Federal Republic cannot drive a jeep today — come on, that is an insult.
“Go and tell the people that the
work that we do is more than the work of ministers. The weight that is on me
today; there is no minister of the Federal Republic that has it.”
Abdullahi said the collapse of
the local government areas across the country had placed a burden on senators
who “carry loads outside their purview.”
According to him, the Ninth
Senate will ensure the independence of the local government structure to boost
national development and stability of the grass-roots economy.
The planned purchase of the SUVs
had generated public outcry.
Some non-governmental
organisations even instituted legal action against the planned expenditure.
The concerned group of activists
who sought the legality or otherwise of the matter in court were led by the
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project.
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Mr man, shut up, you are not higher than anybody. Give us one single reason why you feel you are. What have you done for the country? what value have you added to this country that you want to further deprive with your quest for 5.5m suv for all of you, the reps will ask for theirs too. We really do not see the importance of a senate in this country when they cannot even stop the craziness of Buhari and his idiocyncracies.
ReplyDeleteYou are a senator, you can afford SUV,do you know how many people you will take out of the street with that money. You all are looters
ReplyDelete