He Socioeconomic Rights and Responsibility Project (SERAP) filed a lawsuit against Senate President Godswill Akpabio and House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas for “the illegal plan to spend N40bn on 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for members and senior officials, and N70bn as ‘palliatives’ for new members”.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of Mr. Akpabio’s statement that the secretary of the National Assembly had sent “vacation allowances” to the “various bank accounts of senators.” Some 137 million Nigerians face extreme poverty.
In the lawsuit number FHC/L/CS/1606/2023 filed last Friday in the Federal High Court of Lagos, SERAP seeks: “a mandamus order to order and compel Mr. Akpabio and Mr. Abbas to review and reduce the N40 billion budgeted to buy 465 sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and bulletproof cars for members and senior officers.”
SERAP is seeking: “an order prohibiting Mr. Akpabio and Mr. Abbas from demanding or receiving N40 billion to buy 465 SUVs and bulletproof cars for members and senior officials until the socio-economic impact of the spending on the 137 million poor Nigerians. It is carried out in the public interest”.
SERAP is also seeking: “a mandamus order to order and compel Mr. Akpabio and Mr. Abbas to repeal the Supplementary Appropriation Law of 2022 to reduce the budget of the National Assembly by N110bn to reflect the current economic realities in the country ”.
In the lawsuit, SERAP argues that: “Nigerians are entitled to honest and faithful performance by their public officials, including legislators, as public officials have a fiduciary duty to the general citizenry.”
SERAP argues that “unless the requested reliefs are granted, lawmakers will spend the N110 billion, and the travesty and apparent conflicts of interest and self-negotiation by members of the National Assembly would continue.”
SERAP also argues that “it is a fundamental breach of their fiduciary duties for members of the National Assembly to arbitrarily increase their own budget and use the budget as a tool to cater to the lifestyle of legislators.”
According to SERAP, “While the ‘support allowance’ is budgeted at 70 billion naira for 306 new legislators, only 500 billion naira worth of palliatives are budgeted for 12 million poor Nigerians. N40 billion is also allocated to buy 465 SUVs and bulletproof cars for members and senior officers.”
The lawsuit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare and Blessing Ogwuche, said in part: “The plan to spend N110bn is a fundamental violation of constitutional and international human rights obligations.”
“The planned spending of N110bn is a violation of section 57(4) of the Public Procurement Act 2007 which states that: ‘All persons in whose hands public funds may be entrusted for any purpose must bear in mind that their utilization must be judicious.’”
“It is also a serious breach of public trust and the constitutional oath for members of the National Assembly to unreasonably increase their own budget at a time when more than 137 million poor Nigerians live in extreme poverty, exacerbated by the removal of the subsidy. to fuel. ”
“Instead of exercising their constitutional and oversight functions to pursue the public interest by considering bills to improve conditions for the more than 137 million poor Nigerians facing the impact of fuel subsidy removal, lawmakers appear to be taking care of themselves.”
“According to reports, no less than 107 units of the 2023 model year Toyota Landcruiser and 358 units of the 2023 model year Toyota Prado would be purchased for use by members of the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.”
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“The planned purchase is different from the official armored vehicles that are expected to be purchased for the four presidents of the National Assembly.”
“The proposed spending of N110 billion by members of the National Assembly appears to be on top of the N281 billion already planned for legislators in the 2023 National Assembly budget. The proposed spending is also different from the 30.17 billion million naira budgeted for ‘launching costs’ for new members”.
“The National Assembly budget may increase further as members reportedly demand an upward revision of their salaries and allowances supposedly to offset the impact of the removal of the fuel subsidy.”
“Section 14(2)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 [as amended] states that, ‘the safety and well-being of the people shall be the primary purpose of the government’.
“Under Section 16(1)(a)(b), the National Assembly has an obligation to ‘develop the nation’s resources and promote national prosperity and an efficient, dynamic and self-sufficient economy,’ and to ‘ensure the maximum well-being, freedom and happiness of each citizen’”.
“Cutting N110 billion from the National Assembly budget would be fully consistent with the members’ constitutional oath and the letter and spirit of the Nigerian Constitution, as it would promote efficient, honest and lawful spending of public money.”
No date has been set for the hearing of the lawsuit.
Kolawole Oluwadare
SERAP Deputy Director
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Let hear it in the comment below if you do have an opinion on this; SERAP sues Akpabio and Abass over ‘plan to spend N110 billion on bulletproof cars, others’