‘Nigerian roads are bad’: Senate defends purchase of N160m SUV for each senator

The Senate says there is nothing wrong with the purchase of Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for senators of the 10th National Assembly.

Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, the Chairman, Committee on Senate Services, Senator Sunday Karimi (APC–Kogi), said Nigerians should also raise questions about ministers having four official vehicles.

Karimi said: “Somebody that is a minister has more than three land cruisers, prado, and other vehicles and you are not asking them questions, why us?

“These vehicles that you see, go to Nigeria road. Today, if I go home once, my senatorial district, I come back spending a lot on my vehicles because our roads are bad.

“I said the decision that we took on using land cruiser is the cost and durability.

“Before they came up with this. It is not the decisions of the senators alone, we did an analysis before arriving at land cruisers.”

He added: “It was based on comparative analysis of cost of technical issues and durability on Nigerian roads.

“We want something that we can maintain for another four years and the issue of buying vehicles for national assembly, you know it is a reoccurring issue, it occurs every assembly, it will always come up.

“If you got to state Houses of Assembly today, check out, most of them before they were even inaugurated, the governor would have bought vehicles waiting for them even local government chairmen.

“I drove the vehicle my local government chairman uses, so why National Assembly.”

Karimi said part of the money paid to the contractor was for settlement of about N16 billion liabilities.

The senator added: “When I came into the Senate, when they gave me their liabilities, they had liabilities of over 16 billion that was made up of different vehicles of 7th assembly, 8th, and 9th assembly.

“If you are a business man and you supply vehicles for somebody in 2014 or 2015 or so and up till now they owed you.

“I am not trying to defend anybody; if you see them selling land cruiser in the market let say it is A cost, you don’t expect somebody that will supply it to supply it at the price they are selling it in the market.

“It has to leave a margin. And the civil service for supply they allowed for 25 per cent margin plus that and VAT and I think that VAT is 7.5. Out of that 25% margin they will still remove 5% tax from it.

“You are telling someone to supply and he may even not end up making payment for three years and you want him to supply at the price they are selling in the market, it is not possible.”

The Star