House of Representatives agitates for 7 MILLION NAIRA allowance increment?!

Members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday launched an agitation for a N7m increase in their quarterly allowances, barely 24 hours after resuming from a two-month recess.

Each member of the House currently enjoys N27m per quarter as allowances but the lawmakers want the sum jerked up to N35m.

Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, reportedly had a hectic time calming frayed nerves at an executive session on Wednesday.

Some of the lawmakers, in seeking an increased allowance, at the closed door session, reportedly raised questions of financial impropriety against the leadership of the House.

They reportedly questioned how the “N5m” budgeted for each member’s medical expenses and insurance was utilised by the House.

One of the lawmakers at the session told newsmen that “transparency and accountability were the main issues discussed at the executive session.”

“There are 360 members; we have funds budgeted for medical allowances and insurance.

“If you put aside some funds for these sub-heads, which is about N5m, we have to know how this money is being utilised.”

Tambuwal was said to have used the session, which lasted for over two hours, to explain to his aggrieved colleagues that the leadership was transparent in the running of House accounts.

A source said he explained that the delay in the payment of pending allowances was caused by paucity of funds.

The speaker reportedly tried to convince members that there was the need to prudently manage resources.

He reportedly called for the account books of the House in a bid to convince his colleagues that no lawmaker’s funds had been taken for any unofficial purposes.

The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, however denied that issues of increased allowances and use of the House funds were mentioned at the executive session.