CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Dino Melaye, on Thursday, said the gate house of the official residence of the Vice President, being built in the FCT, will gulp N250 million.
Melaye, who addressed newsmen in Abuja, said his committee had asked for a review of the cost, adding that “Julius Berger said it is going to build a concrete building, I went there with a hammer and I hit on the wall, all I saw was block.
“So investigation is ongoing. we want to make sure that government is not being shortchanged. We are definitely going to call for a review of the contract.”
On the allegation of N600 million accommodation money allegedly paid to the leadership of the National Assembly, Melaye said nobody among the leadership had collected such.
“As the chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, I put my integrity on test to say that no kobo was collected by any of the presiding officers from the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and those who know how government bureaucracy works.
“It is practically impossible for any of the presiding officers to collect money directly from the FCDA,” he said.
According to him, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki; Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu; Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara and his deputy, Honourable Lasun Yusuff, were entitled to furnished official accommodation, by virtue of their positions, adding, however, that they all lived in their private residencies.
“If you recall, last year, the Senate President insisted that the N10 billion which the FCDA put in the 2016 budget for the completion of the official residences of the Senate president and speaker be removed from the budget, to save cost, in reflection of the mood of the nation,” he said, adding that they all sacrificed their personal comfort for the country.
Senator Melaye insisted that the FCDA did not pay any amount as accommodation fees to Saraki, Ekweremadu, Dogara and Lasun.
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