Senators Reject 40 Per Cent Cut of Allowances

Daily Champion

8 June 2011

Senators Reject 40 Per Cent Cut of Allowances.

Tempers rose on the floor of the Senate yesterday as members protested the 40 per cent cut in their housing allowances by the Presidency.

The Senate which was only inaugurated 48 hours ago was however forced to adjourn plenary for three weeks to allow for more consultations with the Presidency.

Trouble started at the first closed session during which Senate President David Mark told the lawmakers that their housing allowance alone has been reduced to N4 million.

Some of the senators, especially non-ranking ones insisted that the amount was too small considering the cost of accommodation in Abuja.

Mark told the angry senators that their housing, car and furniture allowances put together have been slashed from N18 million to about N10 million per annum.

Source told Daily Champion that the senators who were earlier asked to source for loan to get themselves a befitting accommodation in Abuja were disappointed when Mark told them about the cut in their pay.

Each senator before now got the sum of N8.5 million as housing allowance, N6.5 million as furniture allowance and another N7.5 million as car allowance.

But with the 40 per cent cut, each senator will now get less than N4 million for accommodation, N2.7 million for furniture and N3.5 million for car.