Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, has said individual senators should not be held responsible for legal controversies surrounding the procurement of official vehicles for members of the National Assembly.
Adaramodu, who represents Ekiti South Senatorial District, stated that lawmakers neither participate in nor influence the procurement process, which he said is handled exclusively by the administrative bureaucracy of the National Assembly.
Speaking on Wednesday in response to a recent court ruling on the acquisition of official vehicles for federal lawmakers, the senator stressed that members of the Senate were not parties to the procurement exercise.
“The bureaucracy of the National Assembly determines, procures and allocates official vehicles for committee work and legislative assignments. No vehicle is registered in the name of any senator,” he said.
According to him, the vehicles remain government property throughout a lawmaker’s tenure and are used solely to facilitate official duties.
Adaramodu further explained that lawmakers may only acquire such vehicles after leaving office and in accordance with approved government procedures and payment arrangements.
He argued that any legal challenge relating to the procurement process should be directed at the relevant departments responsible for carrying out the transactions rather than at individual legislators.
“Senators were not taken to court. Procurement is handled by the appropriate departments within the National Assembly bureaucracy. Legislators have no role in the purchasing process,” he stated.
The Senate spokesman maintained that the National Assembly operates under established administrative and procurement guidelines and that lawmakers should not be blamed for decisions taken by the institution’s bureaucracy.
His comments followed a judgment by the Federal High Court in Lagos, which declared unlawful the National Assembly’s N110 billion vehicle procurement and allowance scheme.
The suit, filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), challenged the expenditure and named Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abbas as defendants on behalf of members of both chambers.
In a judgment delivered on May 6, Justice Bogoro held that the expenditure violated procurement regulations, constitutional provisions and principles of public accountability.
The court also directed the leadership of the National Assembly to ensure that future procurement and spending decisions comply strictly with due process, transparency, accountability and value-for-money principles.
According to the judgment, lawmakers placed themselves in a conflict-of-interest situation by approving expenditure from which they directly benefited.
“The beneficiaries of the expenditure are the very officials approving it, and the expenditure confers direct pecuniary and material benefits. This, to my mind, constitutes a case of self-dealing and conflict of interest,” the judge ruled.
The court further noted that allocating N110 billion for lawmakers’ benefit amid prevailing economic hardship reflected poor prioritisation of national interests.
Taking judicial notice of the country’s economic challenges, Justice Bogoro stated that the expenditure undermined the fiduciary responsibilities owed by public officers to Nigerians and was inconsistent with the oath of office taken by members of the National Assembly.
