28th February, 2016
Nigeria’s senate president, Bukola Saraki, on Saturday stated why he had to acquire new cars despite the public outcry and backlash. He said the cars he inherited were “old and malfunctioning”.
Saraki who confirmed that he had taken delivery of his new official cars via a statement issued by his media adviser, Yusuf Olaniyonu, refused to state the actually price of the car.
Saraki explained that on several occasions the old vehicles had disappointed him, noting that, sometimes they broke down and hampered him from successfully carrying out both informal and formal functions.
“It is an obvious fact that the official and spare cars that the Senate President inherited and has been using are old and have been malfunctioning,” the statement said.
Stressing that, “There are instances like the day Dr. Saraki visited Keffi for the marriage of the daughter of Senator Abdullahi Adamu and another day at the Presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport that the spare vehicle broke down. In both instances, the spare vehicle did not return home with the convoy. The same vehicle had malfunctioned at the Presidential Villa and National Mosque on different occasions. It is for this reason that the Senate President approved that instead of providing two vehicles for him as he is entitled, only one should be bought to replace the official vehicle while the old official car should be converted to spare car.
“Also, if the National Assembly Management chose to provide operational vehicles for Security Agencies, should that be presented as if they are personal or official vehicles meant for the use of Dr. Saraki? These are vehicles that cannot be used for other purposes and by other people. The Senate President also have no control over the security vehicles.
“It is also surprising that despite the fact that the online media in the same story reported that the order for the vehicle was made in December, it chose to calculate the value of the vehicles based on current exchange rate of the naira to the dollar. This is obviously a mischief aimed at making the figure look huge and justify the screaming headline.”