Just 24 hours after they resumed sitting, the House of Representatives have moved for the upward review of their quarterly allowance by N7m.

Currently, the Lawmakers enjoy a whooping sum of 27m naira as their quarterly allowance, but they have moved against the current pay yesterday when they unanimously agreed that their quarterly allowance should rise reasonably to 35m naira, agitating that an additional 7m naira was necessary.

Our correspondent had reported that the lawmakers were at loggerhead with each other, while trying to resolve the issue of money yesterday, even as the speaker worked tirelessly to keep them focused and united; urging them not to allow the issue of money to take over deliberation

Even with the speaker’s intervention, some agitating members have accused the leadership of the House of financial mismanagement regarding the different allowances it had received on behalf of the lawmakers.
They had demanded to know how the 5m naira set aside for each member of the house for medical and insurance was utilized.

After the closed-door session held yesterday, it was disclosed that the focal point of their discussion was on transparency and accountability. This was disclosed to our correspondent by a member of the House.

“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 utilized.”

A source had revealed to our reporter that, Tambuwal took his time to explain to his colleagues that the leadership of the House was transparent and will give account regarding all funds which have passed through his desk. He had explained further that the lawmakers have not gotten their medical and insurance allowance yet because of insufficient funds.

In his effort to convince his colleagues, he had called for the accounts book, just for them to look through collectively. It was reported that prior to their resumption, some members of the House had sent out text messages calling on an emergency meeting at Transcorp Hilton on Thursday (Today) in order to formalize plans on how to begin what they have termed “operation clean up the House”

It was later revealed that in its bid to stop the meeting, an executive session was called on Wednesday. This was an attempt by the leadership of the House to disabuse the minds of the members from taking such action.
The text reads, “This is inviting all first term members of the House of Representatives to an urgent meeting and launching of the Project “OPERATION CLEAN.” Date; 20 Sept. 2012. Venue-Transcorp Hilton, Abuja Time: 11am prompt.”

When Daily Post spoke with some of the members on phone regarding the outcome of the meeting, they had explained that the members were satisfied with the explanation given so far by the leader of the House, and have decided to suspend the proposed meeting.

http://dailypost.com.ng/2012/09/20/reps-demand-n7m-upward-review-allowance/

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