Ireti Kingibe, FCT’s only senator who was elected on the platform of the Labour Party, says that the 10th Senate was not responsible for the purchase of the N57 billion worth of SUVs.
In an interview with AriseTV, Senator Kiginbe claimed that the SUVs are utility cars purchased by the 9th assembly and the 10th Assembly only received them.
“The Senate says they are utility cars, and they don’t belong to senators. They were already bought before we became senators,” Senator Kingibe announced on national TV.
“I think that going forward, I think this 10th senate might opt to buy cheaper cars made in Nigeria or whatever; I don’t know, but you can hold us responsible for the cars that the 11th Assembly rides, but the ones that we got were purchased and sorted out by the 9th Assembly.
“The only thing that is being done is that they are being distributed to us. The truth of the matter is that I suppose more attention is being paid because the bulk of the people are poorer, but every National Assembly is always provided with utility cars.”
The senator said she spends most of her basic salary as a senator on palliatives for vulnerable people in Abuja.
“People are under the misconception that the basic salary of a senator is a lot. It’s not as much. But so far, I’ve been a senator; in the next week or two, it will be maybe 6 months, because there’s such intense poverty out there, a lot of it goes for palliatives. Oh, I have no food; I need to do this, so a lot of that goes there,” Kingibe said.
