Senate defends N70 billion palliative for lawmakers
Written by Joey Shekwonuzhibo on July 17, 2023
The National Assembly to earmark N70 billion for its members out of the N819 billion federal supplementary budget passed by the legislature last week.
The lawmakers had said the N70 billion was earmarked to support the working conditions of National Assembly members.
But many Nigerians have described the N70 billion budgetary allocation for lawmakers as insensitive while the majority of Nigerians are struggling with economic hardship heightened by the removal of fuel subsidy.
In a statement yesterday, an advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project urged the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of House of Representatives, Mr Tajudeen Abbas, to drop the scandalous plan to spend N40 billion on 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials, and N70 billion as palliatives for new members.
