Organised labour, yesterday, condemned the planned purchase of 108 SUVs for senator, describing the alleged inflation of the prices of the cars as shameful and criminal, which must be resisted by the people.
A statement by the Ayuba Wabba-led faction of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Abuja, accused the Senate of inflating the unit cost price of the vehicles by over 100 percent as, according to the union, each car that was supposed to cost N17 million was hiked to N35.1 million.
Wabba also wondered where the senators got such huge sums to buy vehicles at such price when it was not appropriated in the 2016 budget.
The statement read: “We consider appalling, insensitive and greedy the decision of the Senate to acquire 108 Toyota Landcruisers after collecting car ‘loans’ in August last year for the same purpose.
“It is equally morally despicable and shameful that they are doing this after publicly admitting that the standing committees of the Senate was unable to perform their statutory functions due to paucity of funds.
“Nigerians are keen to know from where they got money for the purchase of these cars without appropriation.
“The defence offered by the Senate spokesperson, Aliyu Abdullahi, is laughable and childish. According to him, Special Advisers use jeeps, why not Senators or do Nigerians expect them to trek to work?
“Couldn’t this have been put to better uses such as constituency projects?”
Vanguard