There was mild drama on the floor of the House of Representatives during the closed door session held on Wednesday over the imposition of purchase of Peugeot 508 for oversight functions by the leadership of the House.
While some of the new lawmakers demanded for Prado Land Cruiser Jeep, the principal officers and sizable number of the old lawmakers expressed solidarity for the procurement of Peugeot 508 owning to the reduction in the allocation to the National Assembly from N150 billion in 2014 to N120 billion in 2015 and N115 billion in the 2016 Appropriations Act.
Recall that the Senate had in an advertisement published dated 20th November, 2015 in some newspapers requested the companies to tender for “Lot 1S, Supply of Utility Vehicles”.
So far, 36 vehicles have been procured by the leadership of the Senate and handed over to some of the Senators despite public outcry.
One of the members of the House of Representatives who attended the Executive session which lasted for about two hours, confirmed that the lawmakers had heated debate over whether to buy the Prado Jeep as previously initiated or Camry 2016 model or 508 Peugeot which some members suggested.
The lawmaker who does not want to be named, also subscribed to the leadership position, stressing that any attempt to procure the 2016 Prado Jeep may incur public outcry considering the State of the nation’s economy.
“If you look at what has happened in the last three years, I don’t think lawmakers should still be talking about what kind of car we should be given. This year we have only N115 billion as our allocation, where do they expect the leadership of the House to get money to buy SUVs?”
According to him, some aggrieved members demanded for the removal of Abdulmumin Jibrin, Chairman of Appropriation Committee, over the controversy over the Constituency projects in the 2016 budget.
“People are really disappointed that the culture of principal officers taking a lion share of constituency projects, leaving those in their states and even their geo-political zones with almost nothing is still the order of the day.
“We thought that part of the change the All Progressive Congress government is talking about also has to do with transparently spreading constituency projects. But the contrary is the case and people made their feelings known about this.
“People are still pushing for the removal of the man who betrayed the House by padding the budget in a way that got the public talking about the House lacking integrity and even the president,” the lawmaker said.
Another lawmaker who confirmed the controversy on the N40 billion padded constituency projects, queried the Speaker for failing to take decisive position despite agitation by members before the eventual resolution of the crisis.
According to him: “We are surprised that the Speaker still retained Chairman of the Appropriations Committee after the embarrassment he and his counterpart in the Senate caused the National Assembly and the leadership of the National Assembly.
