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.”
No comments
Post a Comment