Former senators pay N1.6m for cars, office items
By Oluwole Josiah, Abuja
Wednesday, 8 Jun 2011


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The National Assembly has finally sold the 109 Toyota Camry V6 Model cars to members of the Sixth Senate for a paltry some of N1.5m.



They also paid an additional N100,000 for other items such as computers, TV sets and other disposables which they had used in their offices during the last four years.



Our correspondent gathered that the ex-senators were not quite happy with the value placed on the cars by the management of the National Assembly as they considered it too expensive.



At the House of Representatives, ex-members paid N850,000 to go away with each of the 407 Peugeot cars and their office items.



One of the senators, who benefited from the sale, told our correspondent in confidence that most of the cars sold to them had really depreciated.



He said, “You need to see the cars we are talking about. We have been using them in the last four years. They were used for oversight functions; some of them were even used for election campaigns.



“I am paying N1.5m and I think it is too expensive. It is not fair, but there is nothing we can do now.”



The cars were purchased for about N6m in 2008 and were meant to assist the lawmakers in their committee work.



Meanwhile, the Movement for Revolutionary Change has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to look into the sale of the cars to ex-members of the National Assembly.



In a letter to the EFCC Chairman signed by its Coordinator, Mr. Babatope Babalobi, the group is asking the commission to investigate the sale of the cars against the background of the extant Federal Government’s monetisation policy.



The letter read in part, “We like to refer your commission to the Federal Government Monetisation policy as legalised by the provision of the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances etc) Act 2002 by virtue of which the Federal legislators were not supposed to purchase official cars in the first instance, since their transport allowances had been monetised.



“We also refer to the alibi given by the leadership of the National Assembly at the time the inflated cars were being bought that the vehicles were meant for work of the committees of the National Assembly.



“Against these background, we write this petition requesting your commission to investigate the following: Whether the purchase of the cars few years ago was not against the monetisation policy of the Federal Government and laid down rules; whether it was proper for the members of the sixth National Assembly to sell off the cars and equipments to themselves; whether in determining the buyers of the cars/equipment and the selling price of the cars/equipment the management and leadership of the National Assembly followed due processes, government regulations and civil service rules.”



The group asserted that the purchase and eventual sale of the cars were an infraction on the criminal code, the EFCC Act and an economic crime against the Nigerian people, requiring the trial under the law.



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