CSOs plan protests, SERAP sues NASS over insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are planning mass protests at the National Assembly (NASS) against the acquisition on Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for lawmakers at outrageous amounts, ignoring calls for reduction in the cost of governance in line with hardship everywhere in the country.
Socio Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) added its voice against the “arrogant display of insensitivity to people’s feelings in times of biting and harsh economic situation” by filing a lawsuit to stop the procurement.
The vehicles, comprising 2023 models of Toyota Land Cruiser and Prado SUVs are for the NASS 469 members, with posher models for the principal officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The NASS management has already awarded contracts for the vehicles.
The Senate expects in the next few days to take delivery of 107 Toyota Prado (2023 model) at a cost of N160 million each, and bullet proof models for Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Deputy President Barau Jibrin at a cost of N320 million each.
The House of Representatives is about to distribute a total 358 units of 2023 models of Toyota Land Cruiser to members and one bullet proof model each to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
The market price of a 2023 model Toyota Land Cruiser is between N135 million and N145 million.
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SERAP asks court to stop delivery of vehicles
SERAP announced it has filed an application for an interim and interlocutory injunction at the Lagos Federal High Court to stop the House of Representatives from procuring and taking delivery of the N57.6 billion worth of 360 SUVs for its members, according to reporting by The Guardian
In the application filed last week, SERAP is seeking:
- An order of interim injunction restraining the NASS from procuring, taking delivery, and distributing the SUVs to its members pending the determination of the motion on notice for an order of interlocutory injunction filed simultaneously in the suit.
- Such further order(s) the court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.
SERAP had earlier in August filed a suit at the Federal High Court challenging the legality of spending of billions of naira by the NASS to purchase exotic and bullet proof cars for members and principal officials.
SERAP also sent an open letter to President Bola Tinubu urging him to mount pressure on the leadership of the House of Representatives to stop members from taking delivery of 360 SUVs, pending determination of the application for interim injunction.
A letter dated 21 October 2023 and signed by SERAP Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare urged Tinubu to put pressure on the Senate leadership and stop members from taking delivery of bullet proof SUVs.
“Unless you exercise your executive powers and discharge your constitutional oath of office act as recommended, the lawmakers would go ahead to procure and take delivery of the N57.6 billion vehicles, and thereby present the court with a fait accompli,” the letter said.
“It would invariably hamstring the ability of the court to do justice in the pending suit and applications for injunction.”
Both Akpabio and Senate spokesman Yemi Adaramodu could not be reached for comment, according to The Guardian.
However, House of Representatives spokesman Akin Rotimi explained “the vehicles to be allocated are utility operational vehicles tied to their oversight functions in the discharge of their duties in the standing committees.
“They are not personal vehicles gifted to members. For the duration of the 10th Assembly (2023 to 2027), the vehicles shall remain the property of the National Assembly.
“At the expiration of the tenure of the 10th Assembly in 2027, should the extant assets de-boarding policy of government still be in place, members may have the option of making payment for the outstanding value of the vehicles to government coffers before [the vehicles] can become theirs, otherwise it remains the property of the National Assembly.”
But former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili and Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) are among dozens of critics who decried the purchase of the vehicles.
Oby Ezekwesili
“You all had the audacity to spend scarce public resources on luxury cars at a time majority of your citizens cannot feed, transport themselves, pay school fees and hospital bills due to cost of living crisis?,” she wrote on X (Twitter).
Emmanuel Onwubiko (HURIWA President)
“It is provocative that at a time that most families can barely feed their members with three square meals per day, and hospitals and roads are collapsing rapidly all across the country, that the members of the National Assembly in Abuja are busy sharing multimillion dollars’ worth exotic cars.
“The country generates billions of dollars from export of crude oil, from tariffs and other customs taxation; from the billion of naira made locally from internally generated sources, including that of immigration and Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS).
“Then to notice that the National Assembly, which is an arm of government, is gifting the over 469 members special utility vehicles each worth over N160 million in this austerity period, is indeed a sad development.
“This ostentatious lifestyle of the members of the National Assembly will heighten insecurity, increase sophisticated crimes of kidnappings, armed robberies and targeted assassination because there are over 50 million unemployed youngsters who are out of school without any hope of finding anything productive to do.”
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