SENATE DEBUNKS FIGURES OF CARS PURCHASED

WE DIDN’T BUY 108 CARS…………Senator Gobir

By: Nelson Ogbogbo  Abuja

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Services, Sen. Ibrahim Gobir, has debunked media reports that the Senate purchased 108 utility Land Cruisers stating that only 36 utility Land Cruisers at the cost of N36.5 million each.

Senator Gobir while briefing newsmen in Abuja explained that the specification of Land Cruiser purchased by the senate was VXR V8 and not V6 as being speculated by a section of the media.

“A lot has been happening within the last two days concerning the issue of cars, car loan, appropriation and cost of the cars and we feel it necessary to come out and inform the general public about it.

According to the Senate Committee Chairman on Services, “this is so, so that people can have a better understanding of the whole thing to avoid wrong perception as being created among Nigerians.

“First, I would like to say that, that we bought 108 cars is totally wrong; it is not correct. We bought 36 cars.

“These 36 cars, each senator in each state is either a Chairman or a Vice Chairman and we gave one car to each state to share as utility car. So, we don’t have money to buy 108 cars”, Senator Gobir stated.

“We had a close session and they agreed that we should give one car per state; we sat down and agreed who needs the car most and that was what happened.

“Then, the issue of the cost of the car; the cost of the car is N36.5 million. The car we bought is Land Cruiser VXR V8, not V6.

“The showroom price is about N31 million minimum and then when you add 10 per cent tax it becomes 36.5 million.

“In fact, you can go to the internet and download it; it is very simple, we can give you the website and you can see them.

Senator Ibrahim Gobir added that, “I think what we have purchased the car for is very reasonable”.

Denying allegations that the senate purchased the cars without appropriation, the Chairman stated that, “to him, on the issue of buying cars without appropriation, it is totally wrong because this has been appropriated in the 2015 budget.

“We used what we had in the 2015 budget to buy the 36 cars so that it can go round to each state.

On speculations that the legislators had earlier accessed loans for the purchase of cars, Gobir explained that no lawmaker accessed any form of loan for the purchase of car.

Defending insinuations of the senate’s insensitivity towards spending such a huge sum of money on cars in the present economic challenges being faced in the country, Senator Gobir stated that buying 36 cars as against 109 was informed by senate’s concern for state of the economy.

“We are supposed to buy 109 cars but because of the paucity of funds, because of our sensitivity and concern for lack of funds, we bought only 36 to go round per state.

Ibrahim Gobir decried the level of criticism on the National Assembly in spite of efforts to cut down on cost to meet present day economic reality

“Come to think of it; there is no Minister that hasn’t got about three, four cars – one Land Cruiser, maybe a back-up and two Hilux cars,

“There is no Director in the Civil Service that hasn’t got a car. There is no Permanent Secretary that hasn’t got a Land Cruiser.

“In fact, every House of Assembly member has either a Prado or a Land Cruiser and here is a Senator you say he cannot have one Land Cruiser”.