Nigerian Legislators Fight Over Prado SUV Cars and Constituency Projects

 There is a sharp division in the House of Representatives as lawmakers fight over decision to purchase Prado SUV Cars and constituency projects.

 All is not well in the House of Representatives as members are still sharply divided over which car to purchase for official use.

 According to Daily Sun, at the Executive Session of the House yesterday, lawmak­ers deliberated on different issues with questions aris­ing on why the leadership of the House settled for the Nigerian made Peugeot 508, rather than the more prestigious Toyota Prado Landcruiser SUV, which is the preferred choice of the Senate.

 This forced many lawmakers to express their grievances and others used the opportunity to complain over the spread of constituency and zonal projects.

 It didn't stop there as lawmakers also raised objections to Ab­dulmumin Jibrin’s position as Chairman of the Ap­propriations Committee, demanding that he be re­moved to salvage the repu­tation of the House which, they insisted, had been sev­erally damaged by the con­troversies that surrounded the 2016 budget. Jibrin was accused of allocating projects worth N4 billion to his Bibeji/Kiru Federal Constituency.

 The executive ses­sion was characterised by complaints as lawmakers took turns to say that they have been shortchanged with regard to the spread of constituency projects. Members accused principal of­ficers of cor­nering projects that should have been shared to other constituencies in their states and zones.

 A lawmaker registering his grievances said: “If you look at what has happened in the last three years, I don’t think lawmakers should still be talking about what kind of car we should be given. This year we have only N115 billion as allocation, where do they expect the leadership of the House to get money to buy SUVs?

 “People are really disap­pointed that the culture of principal officers taking a lion share of constituency projects, leaving those in their states and even their geo-political zones with almost nothing is still the order of the day.

“We thought that part of the change the All Progressive Congress government is talking about also has to do with transparently spreading constituency projects. But the contrary is the case and people made their feelings known about this,” the lawmaker said.

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