N70 Billion Allocated For National Assembly Infrastructure Not Lawmakers – Kalu

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has said the N70 billion allocated for the National Assembly was for the infrastructure of the parliament not lawmakers.

Recall that the National Assembly, on Thursday, approved N70 billion to support the working conditions of new lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Naija News reports that the lawmakers made the approval on Thursday during plenary after the N819.5 billion 2022 Supplementary budget was amended.

Responding to the backlash in a chat with reporters on Thursday, Kalu said the fund is not palliative to take care of the members of the National Assembly but to attend to the parliament’s infrastructure.

He said, “I just wanted to make it clear that what we did today was not just for the palliatives so that the narrative that will be out there will not be that we passed a palliative bill to take care of the judicial commission, or take care of the National Assembly.

“It is the National Assembly infrastructure that we are talking about when we mentioned the component that has to do with parliament.

“But the major part of the whole bill we passed today is to help Nigerians who, due to the removal of subsidy, are feeling the impact.”