The House of Representatives has settled for Peugeot 508 as official vehicles for the 360 members at a total cost of N3.6 billion, Daily Trust gathered yesterday.
Each vehicle costs N10 million and delivery will be made in two to three months.
Daily Trust had on Sunday exclusively reported that the Senate had started taking delivery of 108 Toyota Land Cruiser Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) it ordered for members at the cost of N3.8 billion.
Thirty six of the vehicles, which cost N35.1 million each, were delivered last Tuesday and distributed to senators the following day.
However, checks by our reporter indicated that a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV V6 2016 model is sold at N17 million.
Daily Trust gathered last night that the House had already given Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) a letter of intent to supply the cars.
The committee on House services, which is saddled with the responsibility of processing the purchase of the vehicles, met yesterday and took the final decision on the vehicles, it was learnt.
The cars are ostensibly intended for committee work. There are 96 standing committees in the House, but the cars would be shared in such a manner that each member would get one.
Initially the House had wanted to buy Camry 2016 model, but the members changed their minds to avoid clash of interest because the sole major distributors of Camry in Nigeria, Vatswani Brothers, were under an investigation by the House.
The source said the National Assembly tenders’ board would meet this week on the matter and the cars might be supplied within the next few months.
The spokesman of the House Rep Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa) confirmed to Daily Trust that it was true that the House had settled on Peugeot 508 at the cost of N10 million each.
He said they decided to settle for a Nigerian company in order to boost the company’s revenue base, adding that the vehicles would be supplied between the next two and three months.
Namdas insisted that the vehicles would be for committee activities and not for the personal use of the lawmakers.
Our source added that PAN would ship all the parts of the vehicles from its mother company in France and assemble them in Nigeria.
Return 108 vehicles or face mass action, NLC tells senators
The Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) yesterday warned the senators to return the 108 Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs.
NLC president Ayuba Wabba in a statement in Abuja said it was morally despicable and shameful that the senators bought the vehicles after publicly admitting that the standing committees of the Senate were unable to perform their statutory functions due to paucity of funds.
He said the NLC equally considered as grievous criminal act the senators inflation of the unit cost of each of the cars by over a 100 percent, as each car supposedly cost N35.1 million instead of N17 million.
He said that Nigerians were keen to know from where the senators got the money for the purchase of these cars without appropriation. He described as childish and laughable the defence offered by the Senate spokesperson, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi that Special Advisers that since used jeeps Senators should not deserve less.
He said, “Couldn’t this have been put to better uses such as the constituency projects of these same Senators? At a time with severe economic challenges and deepening poverty in the land, can the Senate afford this level of reckless luxury and arrogance? The answer is, “No”.
“Their multiple acts of criminality, ranging from acquiring these cars after previously taking loans for the same purpose; spending money without appropriation and over inflating costs constitute not just corruption but a crime against the Nigerian people whom they claim to represent.”
Wabba therefore demanded the cars be returned or the appropriate agencies should prosecute them for corruption.
He added that if they refused to so, they should be prepared to keep a date with Nigerian workers and their civil society allies including market women and students.
Source: DailyTrust
