The Punch reports that the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday, April 19, justified its decision to buy 36 Sport Utility Vehicles for senators just as it clarified that the money came from its 2015 budget,
The chairman, committee on Senate services, Senator Abdullahi Gobir, disclosed this in an interview with journalists.
Gobir put the value of each of the Land Cruiser VXR V8 vehicles at N36.6m including the cost of purchase, and other taxes.
He said: “I would like to say that the issue that we bought 108 cars is totally wrong, It is not correct. We bought 36 cars. These 36 cars because each senator in each state is either a Chairman or a Vice Chairman and we gave one car to each state.
“We don’t have money to buy 108 cars. On the issue of buying cars without appropriation. This is totally wrong because this has been appropriated for in the 2015 budget. So we used what we have in the 2015 budget to buy the 36 cars so that it can go round to each state.
“We are supposed to buy 109 cars but because of the paucity of funds, because of our sensitivity and concern for lack of funds we bought only 36 to go round per state.”