By SINL Reporter
The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday said no senator collected N20million COVID-19 palliative from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Specifically, the upper legislative chamber challenged the Executive Director (Projects) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Cairo Ojuogboh, to provide evidence to back up his claim that members of the National Assembly were beneficiaries of COVID-19 palliatives from the Commission.
Ojougboh had alleged in an interview recently with a newspaper that Senators and members of the House of Representatives were beneficiaries of COVID-19 palliatives from NDDC.
“In the National Assembly, each of the Senators got N20 million, while the House of Representatives members got N15 million for COVID-19 from the National Assembly,” Ojuogboh said.
But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Ajibola Basiru, in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja, denied the allegation made by the Executive Director that members of both chambers of the National Assembly received the sum of N20m and N15m each as COVID-19 palliative from the Commission.
He, therefore, challenged Ojuogboh to provide the names of lawmakers who were beneficiaries of the said palliative, or immediately retract his statement alongside tendering an apology to the National Assembly in the absence of evidence to backup his claims.