The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas to disclose the “exact amount of monthly running costs” allotted to members of the National Assembly.
SERAP requested the spending details of any of such running costs as well. This information was made known in a statement dated August 17, 2024, signed by Kolawole Oluwadare, Deputy Director of SERAP, and made available to Channels Television on August 18. The group’s demand is coming on the heels of the recent controversy surrounding the salary of Senators.
A former Senator representing Kaduna Central, Senator Shehu Sani, had stated that Senators receive over N13 million monthly, but the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission faulted his claim.
In its statement however, SERAP urged the NASS leadership to “promptly end the alleged practice by the National Assembly of fixing its own salaries, allowances and running costs, in conformity with the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], and the country’s international obligations.”
It also called them “to end the alleged practice of paying running costs into the personal accounts of lawmakers, and to refer the alleged misuse or mismanagement of the running costs to appropriate anticorruption agencies for investigation and prosecution where there is relevant admissible evidence.”
