… says Nigerians still suffering fuel subsidy removal
By Akubulu Ngozi
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has urged the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas to seek President Bola Tinubu’s consent to redirect the N110 billion allocated to the National Assembly to address the situation of the over 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria.
Describing the alloted budget to the House as a scandalous plan to spend N40bn on 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for members and N70bn as ‘palliatives’ for new members, the Body took to its Official Twitter Account @SERAPNigeria to seek for the House Members’ corporation to
present a fresh supplementary appropriation bill to the President for the approval of the National Assembly.
According to reports gathered concerning the distribution of the palliative, the sum of N70 billion ‘support allowance’ was budgeted for 306 new lawmakers, N500 billion worth of palliatives is budgeted for 12 million poor Nigerians while N40 billion was allocated to buy 465 SUVs and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials.
In line with this, SERAP urged members of the House to consider the consequence of the fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians and redirect the N110 palliative allotted to them to the poor masses.
The statement reads, “SERAP has urged the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas to drop the scandalous plan to spend N40bn on 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials, and N70bn as ‘palliatives’ for new members.
“We also urged them to request President Bola Tinubu to present a fresh supplementary appropriation bill, to redirect the N110 billion to address the situation of the over 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, for the approval of the National Assembly.
“It is a grave violation of the public trust and constitutional oath of office for members of the National Assembly to unjustifiably increase their own budget at a time when over 137 million poor Nigerians are living in extreme poverty exacerbated by the removal of fuel subsidy.”