Senate tackles Nigerians for questioning decision to buy N5.5bn SUVs for senators

The Nigerian Senate has frowned at citizens’ outcry over its plans to purchase Sport Utility Vehicles amounting to about N5.5 billion for senators.

The leader of the senate, Yahaya Abdullahi, during an interview in his office in Abuja with newsmen on Wednesday, said it was an insult for Nigerians to lament because the Senate plans to purchase jeeps for senators.

According to him, the status of a Nigerian senator is not unworthy of an SUV.

“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; no minister of the Federal Republic has it,” he said.

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Speaking further, Abdullahi claimed that owing to the collapse of the local government areas across the country, that the Senate had been more burdened, carrying “loads outside their purview.”

He then assured that the 9th Senate would see to the independence of the local government structure to improve national development and stability of the grass-roots economy.

Many Nigerians had decried the plans by the federal lawmakers to purchase SUVs amounting to N5.5 billion.

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