The Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Leo Ogor has cleared the air surrounding the purchase of vehicles for the National Assembly committees.
He also said that President Muhammadu Buhari was not properly informed about the worth of vehicles to be purchased for committees’
The president had said on Wednesday during his maiden media chat that there was no way members of the National Assembly would purchase vehicles for themselves worth over N40 billion after collecting car loans.
It will be recalled that the 109 senators and 360 members of the lower chamber would get a vehicle each after collecting car loans a few weeks after their inauguration in June.
But speaking to journalists in Abuja, Ogor said that: “I think someone somewhere misled the president and wanted to set him against the National Assembly, or set the Nigerian public against lawmakers.”
He said although vehicles were usually bought for committees’ oversight functions, there was nothing like car loan, explaining that what they collected was “car allowance, which was paid over the period of four years, and which even the president himself is entitled to based on the provision of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission Act.”
The House minority leader said a proposal to buy cars for committees cannot be more than N4 billion, stressing N40 billion is about 40 percent of the National Assembly’s annual budget.
Ogor explained that the cars the National Assembly usually buys are not “exotic vehicles” but “rugged” ones that can travel to any part of the country.
Similarly, House spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas, denied yesterday that lawmakers were given any car loans, saying the cars they have proposed to were for committee.