TheCable

Citizens Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN) says the principal officers of the national assembly do not have any reason to ask the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to pay for their accommodation.

The group said provision was made for the accommodation of principal officers in the annual budget.

On Monday, the group alleged that principal officers of the national assembly were using FCDA “as a front under the guise of renting, renovation and furnishing of fictitious official residences”.

They said the sum of about N630 million was used for the accommodation of principal officers.

But Turaki Hassan, Dogara’s spokesman, said leaders of the national assembly were entitled to accommodation provided for by FCDA.

But speaking with journalists on Wednesday, Ibrahim Wala, leader of CATBAN, challenged members of the national assembly to ask the principal officers to show them details of the budget.

“The budget of the national assembly explicitly provides for the monetised accommodation of principal officers including provision of guest houses,” Wala said.

“The national assembly is an independent arm of government that for a long time now has enjoyed autonomy. The 8th assembly has since inception collected N150 billion and N120 billion as her annual budgets respectively, through first line charge.

“In this same budget, monetised provision of accommodation for principal officers are categorically stipulated and specified which the senate president and speaker collect with no context from anyone.

“Unfortunately, only the senate president and the speaker have access to the contents of that budget and have refused to make it open for even the members of both chambers to know, who are led like mules and have no idea what is contained in their budget that they readily approve nor even have the guts to demand it be made open for them to know.

“The principal officers of the national assembly therefore have no excuse whatsoever to go asking for money from FCDA in the name of accommodation.”