Ministers, State Lawmakers, LG Chairmen Have Officials Cars , Getting SUV Cars For Senators Shouldn’t Raise Eyebrows-Senate

The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday asserted that it had done nothing unusual by purchasing Sports Utility Vehicles for the senators while also submitting that this should not have ordinarily raised eyebrows

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While the value of each of the cars was not disclosed, the senate also noted that members preferred the imported SUVs to the ones manufactured locally.

Recall that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, had in a suit it instituted asked the Federal High Court , Lagos to stop the lawmakers from taking delivery of the SUVs pending the hearing and determination of the applications for injunction filed by the organization.

The group’s applications for interim and interlocutory injunction was sequel to media reports that members of the House of Representatives are also getting set to distribute SUVs to the reps members while giving the project cost as N57.6 billion.

Each of the SUVs would according to media reports be bought for N160 million.

  Team@orientactualmags.com  learned that Chairman , Committee on Senate Services, Senator Sunday Karimi, has however explained that the senate has done nothing unusual.

Presiding over a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday,  Karimi said  public disapproval was shocking as  ministers who have gotten  about four official vehicles have been spared.

‘Somebody who is a minister has more than three Land Cruisers, Prado and other vehicles and you are not asking them questions, why us?

These vehicles that you see, go to Nigeria roads today, If I go home once, my senatorial district, I come back spending a lot on my vehicles because our roads are bad.

I said the decision that we took on using Land Cruiser is the cost and durability’he said.

Karimi also noted that a lot of factors were considered before settling for the SUVs.

‘Before they came up with this, it is not the decisions of the senators alone, we analyzed  before arriving at Land Cruisers.

It  was based on a comparative analysis of the cost of technical issues and durability on Nigerian roads.

We want something that we can maintain for another four years and the issue of buying vehicles from the National Assembly, you know it is a recurring issue, it occurs every assembly, it will always come up’ he said.

State lawmakers and local government Chairmen according to him have official cars and it should not be a different case in the Senate.

‘If you go to state Houses of Assembly today, check out, most of them before they were even inaugurated, the governor would have bought vehicles waiting for them even  the local government chairmen.

I drove the vehicle my local government chairman uses, so why the National Assembly?’ he queried.

Karimi also explained that  the National Assembly owed the suppliers about N16 billion hence the huge project cost.

‘I am the chairman of, the senate service. When I came into the senate, when they gave me their liability, they had a liability of over N16 billion that is made up of different vehicles for the 7th, 8th and 9th Assemblies.

If you are a businessman and you supply vehicles for somebody in 2014 or 2015 or so and up till now they owed you.

I am not trying to defend anybody, if you see them selling Land Cruisers in the market let’s say it is A cost, you don’t expect somebody that will supply it to supply it at the price they are selling it in the market.

It has to leave a margin and the civil service for supply allowed for 25% margin plus that and VAT and I think that VAT is 7.5. Out of that 25% margin, they will still remove 5% tax from it.

You are telling someone to supply and he may even not end up making payment for three years and you want him to supply at the price they are selling in the market, it is not possible’ he submitted-Team@orientactualmags.com
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