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The Nigerian Senate Tuesday denied purchasing 108 cars for it members, saying that only 36 cars were purchased one for each state of the Federation, even as it directed relevant Federal Government agencies to stop the importation of fake and substandard tyres.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Senate Services, Senator Ibrahim Gobir, gave the clarification during a meeting in Abuja.
He told reporters that the Senate decided to purchase only 36 cars which cost about 36.5 million Naira each due to lack of funds.
“I will like to say that the issue that we bought 108 cars is wrong.
“We bought 36 cars and this is because each Senator in each state is either a chairman or a vice chairman and we gave one car to each state to share among themselves as utility car.
“And on the issue of buying cars without appropriation, it is very wrong. This has been appropriated in the 2015 budget and we used what we had in the 2015 budget to by the 36 cars.
“The issue of the cost of the car. The showroom price is 36.5 million Naira and we are surprised. The car we bought is Land Cruiser VSR V8 not V6 and the minimum showroom price is about 31 million Naira and when you put 10 per cent VAT and Tax that will arrive at 36.5 million Naira,” Senator Gobir explained.
Going by the figures given by Senator Gobir the 36 cars cost about 1.3 billion Naira.
There were reports on Monday on the purported purchase of 108 cars by the Senate, with the Nigeria Labour Congress urging the lawmakers to return the cars or face its wrath.
The NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, was quoted by This Day as saying that the purchase of the cars was “wrong and insensitive” in the face of the suffering of the masses.
“We consider as appalling, insensitive and greedy the decision of the Senate to acquire 108 Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles (one for each member, except the Senate president) 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 are unable to perform their statutory functions due to the paucity of funds,”Mr Wabba said.
The Senate also directed the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to work with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to stop the importation of substandard tyres into the country.
The resolution was reached on Tuesday after a debate on a motion drawing the attention of the Senate to the alarming rate and frequent loss of lives and property through road accidents due to the use of substandard and used tyres.
During its plenary the Senate also called on the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) to conduct checks on all tyres in use in Nigeria.
Daily road accidents have led to a large number of deaths and the use of ‘used tyres’ is said to be one of the reasons for the high number of road accidents.
Moving the motion at the Senate, Senator Shehu Sani expressed concerns over the use of substandard tyres imported into Nigerian markets by businessmen he described as unpatriotic.
Contributing to the debate, Senator Dino Melaye, suggested local production and periodic sensitisation on the use of tyres in Nigeria.
Some other lawmakers were of the opinion that the importation of used tyres should be completely banned in the country.
After much debate, the Senate called on the FRSC and VIOs to conduct a quick check on all tyres in use in Nigeria.
They also urged SON to partner with the NCS to intensify boarders and ports checks to halt the importation of substandard tyres and ensure the speedy clearance of imported genuine tyres from the ports
