A former spokesman for the House of Representatives, Eseme Eyiboh, has claimed that the N2 million holiday token recently given to Nigerian senators will not be sufficient to help them sustain engagement with their constituencies due to the economic hardship in the country.
Mr Eyiboh said this when he appeared on a live programme on Arise News TV which was monitored by SaharaReporters on Sunday night.
He claimed that there is nothing wrong in paying the lawmakers while going on holiday because the same thing is in practice in the civil service.
SaharaReporters had reported that the senators were angry with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio after exposing that they received bribe money for ministerial screening in a video that went viral on Wednesday, SaharaReporters has learnt.
Akpabio was heard in the video telling members of the upper legislative chamber that an undisclosed amount of money had been sent to each of them to use to enjoy their holidays.
Sources in the National Assembly told SaharaReporters that N2 million was sent to each of the senators by Akpabio who had received N1 billion from ministerial nominees.
In the viral video, Akpabio said, “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.”
But when his statement sparked a rowdy moment on the floor of the Senate, he rephrased the statement and said, “I withdraw that statement. In order to allow you to enjoy your holiday, the senate president has sent prayers to your mailboxes to assist you to go on a safe journey and return.”
SaharaReporters learnt that the senators described Akpabio’s action as blackmail, to ensure they received the stick from their constituents for a “paltry sum” while he had pocketed the bulk of the bribe money paid to them.
“Senators are upset with Senate President Akpabio for exposing the bribe money they get for ministerial screening. A paltry N2 million was sent to each of them. They are angry that now Nigerians know how they are bribed to allow ministerial nominees to take a bow and go,” the source said.
“The Senate President collected over N1 billion from the screened ministers and sent only N2 million to the account of each of 109 senators, totalling N218 million,” another source said.
“He never disclosed to the senators the source of the N2 million each sent to their accounts. Rather, what Akpabio did was to blackmail the Senators on Monday night in an open live television cast that money had been sent to the accounts of Senators for holidays. Then the following morning, senators received only N2 million each in their accounts while the senate president pocketed hundreds of millions of naira.
“What a shame and highest treachery and blackmail by the Senate President. Senators are getting ready for a battle with him because this has pitched Senators against their constituents who never knew that they were given only N2 million each for the so-called ‘allowance for holidays/vacation.’”
Commenting on this development, Eyiboh said the Senators deserved to be paid because they had not received any sort of money since their inauguration in June.
He described the N2 million given to each of the Senators as a token because due to the socio-economic hardship in the country, the money will not be sufficient to enable the lawmakers to engage with their constituents during the period of vacation.
He said, “For getting to three months, they have not received any salary, they have not received any allowance. They have not received any money of any sort.
“Civil servants by the time they want to go on holiday, or they want to go on break, or sometimes you hear a government at subnational or at national saying that these categories of civil servants have now been paid arrears of these, have now been paid arrears of that. Nobody is talking about it. Two million naira to be given to a senator. For example, Orlu senatorial district has 13 local governments. Eket Senatorial District where I come from has 12 local governments.
“For you to give a Senator N2 million, that is not his salary, that is not anything, that is a token as a matter of fact. To now take to go for a holiday in 12 local governments or 13 local governments as the case may be.
“You and I will agree that N2 million under this hunger and anger will not be able to sustain engagements with their constituencies. You agree with me, no doubt about that.”
“There is no big deal in this issue of N2 million. It is only that it is a time when the majority of our population is going through hunger and anger,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has said it will sue the Senate President Akpabio over the payment of ‘holiday allowances’ to Senators in a letter signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.
