Senate says Senators receiving N13.5m is old news

The Senate has responded to the public outrage over the revelation that Senators receive N13.5 million monthly as "running cost", saying that it was already public knowledge.

The lawmaker representing Kaduna Central, Senator Shehu Sani, had recently disclosed that Senators receive the N13.5 million monthly as "running cost" alongside a N750,000 consolidated salary as well as other allowances.

In a statement signed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Abdullahi, Senator Sani had not revealed anything new as the information on the salaries and funds for running of offices of Senators had already been made public.

He said the information is contained in various line items and expenditure heads of the budget of the National Assembly which has been made public.

He said, "Almost all holders of elective and appointive offices have running costs allocated to their offices and that cannot be said to be part of their salaries."

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No plot against Sani for revelation

Senator Abdullahi also dismissed rumours of a gang up on Senator Sani for the revelations he made in the recent interview, as recent media reports indicated that the lawmaker's colleagues are unhappy with him.

"Abdullahi dismissed any insinuations that Sani's colleague were unhappy with him and said if people had looked critically at the budget of the National Assembly which has since been made public, they would have seen that various line items like traveling, medicals, consultancy and the rest were captured in the budget and they were the funds divided for each Senator's use," the statement read.