NASS Clerk Disowns Akpabio, Reveals Source Of Money Wired To All Senators

By Sunday Onye, senior correspondent

Management of the National Assembly has denied paying a holiday largesse to senators contrary to the disclosure by the senate president, Godswill Akpabio, during a Senate plenary.

The parliament bureaucracy said the N2million it paid to each senator was a statutory running cost of their offices, which was captured in the 2023 budget, and not for a jamboree or vacation as being insinuated.

Lagosreporters reports that Akpabio had penultimate Monday night at the tail-end of a special plenary session after the Senate completed the screening and confirmation of President Bola Tinubu’s ministerial nominees, openly informed senators that the CNA, Magaji Tambuwal, had wired money into their individual bank accounts in order to enjoy their annual holiday.

“In order to enable all of us to enjoy our holidays, a token has been sent to our various accounts by the Clerk of the National Assembly…,” Akpabio had said amid interruptions from senators, who were apparently dissatisfied with his public disclosure for fear of a backlash.

The development forced the senate president to pause a bit and thereafter withdraw the statement for the record and rephrased the same information.

“In order to enjoy your holidays, the Senate President has sent prayers to your mailboxes to assist you to go on a safe journey and return,” Akpabio had said jocularly in the alternative to calm down frayed nerves.

Nigerians, however, took to social media to berate the senate president and his colleagues for allegedly feeding fat on the nation’s commonwealth at a time the majority of Nigerians were facing economic challenges occasioned by the federal government’s policy of petrol subsidy removal, among others.

Some also wondered why political officeholders would enjoy perks of office to the fullest while President Bola Tinubu was asking ordinary Nigerians to sacrifice.

But a statement signed by the secretary, research & information on behalf of the clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Dr. Ali B. Umoru, yesterday, said the N2 million payment to the lawmakers was not a new development or privilege, but an entitlement backed by the Appropriation Law for the running of their offices.