Details emerged on Sunday on how members of the National Assembly struck a deal with President Bola Tinubu to distribute grains to 109 senatorial districts and 360 federal constituencies across the Federation.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered that though the Federal Ministry of Agriculture gave offer letters to contractors to supply the grains, it has neither finalised the agreement nor paid money to the contractors to date.
Coming under pressure from their constituents, some senators went for the option of raising funding for the contractors to start supplying, pending when the government would conclude the bidding and due process checks with them.
A key member of the Senate, Sen. Karimi Sunday, who spoke exclusively with Nigerian Tribune, said the whole idea started when members of the 10th National Assembly protested to Tinubu over how the previous administration used state governments in distributing palliatives without inputs from senators and members of the House, “the real representatives of the people who are very close to them. “
According to Sunday, who represents the Kogi-West Senatorial District, the discussions started in October 2023.
He explained that in his response, Tinubu promised to do the distribution through the lawmakers at N200 million per senator and N100 million per member of the House.
However, Sunday stated that this was to be handled by the ministry of agriculture and not through the direct handing of cash to lawmakers.
But he said that in spite of the contractors being given the letters of award, none of them had been paid “a dime.”
He spoke more: “They asked us to bring contractors who would bid for the job through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to follow due process.
“As I am talking to you, the contractors have been given letters of award, but no contractor has received a dime from the ministry yet.
“In any case, that money will not be paid to us senators directly. But some of us, wanting to make sure that those things were supplied before the Yuletide, went and worked with our contractors to supply the grains to our people.
“For instance, in Kogi-West, they have supplied rice to my people, even far more than that amount, after I made personal commitments.”
Sunday further explained that this was not the case with other colleagues of his who did not take the risky steps he took just to get the grains to his people before Christmas.
He added, “But some of my colleagues did not do what I did, because if you have been promising since October and nothing has happened, they would not be encouraged to source money to work with their contractors to supply the grains.
“So, with all this noise going around, no senator or House member has received a dime. But some have made commitments; I must tell you that. They gave the contractors their personal money to start supplying before Christmas.
“So, it’s a lie to say senators or House members have already collected money to supply grains. No dime, I repeat, no dime has been given.”
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