By Andy Asemota
The Senate on Wednesday says the National Assembly has nothing to do with the initial N37 billion budget and the subsequent N9 billion eventually appropriated for rehabilitation of the NASS complex by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, gave this clarification following a point of order raised by the Senate Deputy Chief Whip, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (Niger North), over the alleged N37 billion budgetary provision for the rehabilitation of the NASS complex and other alleged inaccuracies in the media reportage following Tuesday’s leakage of the NASS roof.

Lawan, who decried the said reports as “irresponsible,” said “the fact that there was a leakage, to me, is a clear testimony, confirmation and vindication of the position NASS took initially when we came into office.

He continued: “The Speaker and I found it necessary to go round this complex and we found out the dilapidation and the degradation, in fact anyone who sees what we here knows that this place is overdue for rehabilitation. It’s even worse down steers.

NASS renovation: Why we reduced budget to N9billion -Senate

“So, we went to see Mr. President to complain to him on the need to rehabilitate and renovate the NASS complex after it has been used for 20 years and not rehabilitated at all. Mr. President asked us to engage the FCDA, who are the owners of this building.”

According to Lawan, but for his (Lawan) commitment to transparency and prudence, the contractors who bidder for the rehabilitation project were seeking for far more than N37 billion.

“The technical side of the NASS and some contractors: Julius Berger and others came up with what we need to rehabilitate here and the costing.

In fact, I fought against the initial submissions because I was taking the documents to Mr. President but when I saw what some of them bidden. I said there is no way I could take that to Mr. President, go and rework it; they continued to re-work until it they came down to N37 billion,” he said.

To critics of the NASS complex rehabilitation, the Senate President said: “This is the house of the citizens of Nigeria and this is the symbol of democracy, as the deputy chief whip has said, if this complex leaks, the interpretation is we are not holding our democracy with the respect it deserves.”

Earlier, Senator Sabi Abdullahi noted that contrary to media reports, the leakage didn’t delay the commencement of the plenary, adding that the leakage had nothing to do with the chambers and nothing could be further than the truth than the allegation that the Senate had spent N37 billion on the project.

According to Abdullahi, the provision of N37 billion for the project was slashed to nine billion naira and nothing had been done on that.