Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas have been taken to court over “the unlawful plan to spend N40 billion on 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials, and N70 billion as ‘palliatives’ for new members.”
The suit, filed by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) comes on the heels of the statement by Akpabio that the Clerk of the National Assembly had sent “holiday allowances” into the “various bank accounts of senators”.
Public outrage followed the reckless announcement on live TV as some 137 million Nigerians face extreme poverty.
In the suit number FHC/L/CS/1606/2023 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos, SERAP seeks “an order of mandamus to direct and compel Mr Akpabio and Mr Abbas to review and reduce the N40 billion budgeted to buy 465 Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials.”
It also seeks “an order restraining Mr Akpabio and Mr Abbas from demanding or receiving the N40 billion to buy 465 SUVs and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials until an assessment of the socio-economic impact of the spending on the 137 million poor Nigerians is carried out in the public interest.”
The rights group wants “an order of mandamus to direct and compel Mr Akpabio and Mr Abbas to repeal the Supplementary Appropriation Act 2022 to reduce the budget for the National Assembly by N110bn to reflect the current economic realities in the country.”
“Nigerians have a right to honest and faithful performance by their public officials including lawmakers, as public officials owe a fiduciary duty to the general citizenry,” SERAP argues in the suit.
“Unless the reliefs sought are granted, the lawmakers will spend the N110bn, and the travesty, and apparent conflicts of interest and self-dealing by members of the National Assembly would continue.”
“It a fundamental breach of their fiduciary duties for members of the National Assembly to arbitrarily increase their own budget and to use the budget as a tool to satisfy the lifestyle of lawmakers,” SERAP says.
According to SERAP, “While N70 billion ‘support allowance’ is budgeted for 306 new lawmakers, only N500 billion worth of palliatives is budgeted for 12 million poor Nigerians. N40 billion is also allocated to buy 465 SUVs and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials.”
The suit was filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare and Ms Blessing Ogwuche.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
