Senators Receive N13.5m Monthly Apart From Salaries —Shehu Sani

Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has revealed that he and his colleagues receive N13.5 million monthly as “running cost” apart from monthly salary.

In an interview with TheNews, Mr. Sani said that the running cost does not include a N700,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances which they also receive.

“I think what we can say is that the running cost of a senator is N13.5 million every month,” the senator said.

He explained that though there is no specification on what the funds was meant for, each lawmaker is mandated to provide receipts to back up their expenses.

Mr. Sani explains, “But what I am saying is that that money (N13.5 million per month) must be receipted for what you do with it. But what you are given to go and spend without any accountability is N750,000.”

The lawmaker also spoke on the controversial constituency projects for federal lawmakers.

“The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis and almost every senator will go with a constituency fund of about N200 million, but it is not the cash that is given to you.

“You will be told that you have N200 million with an agency of government for which you will now submit projects equivalent to that amount. And it is that agency of government that will go and do those projects for you.”

Mr. Sani said the process of executing the projects was fraught with fraud.

“Now, the corruption comes when the projects are not done and the money is taken. But right now, it is difficult to do that because NGOs and transparency groups have come into it. They track every allocation made to you and where they are being used.

“So, it’s becoming difficult for what used to happen in the past to happen now.

“But I can tell you that I would love a situation where we do away with running costs, constituency projects and leaves senators and members of House of Reps with salaries.

The senator stated that members of the National Assembly ideally shouldn’t be involved in constituency projects. He had earlier favoured this position while speaking at the launch of fact-checking and constituency projects tracking websites organised by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ).

“There are issues that we need to understand. First, I don’t believe that members of the National or even state assemblies should be involved in carrying out what is called constituency projects,” he said in the