Ishaku Abbo, a former lawmaker from the Adamawa North Senatorial District, has stated that the monthly allowances for senators appear “big on paper” but are inadequate to cover the responsibilities and challenges of their role.
In an interview on Arise TV, Abbo revealed that his salary and allowances as a senator amounted to N14.4 million.
He said: “When I was in the Senate, cumulatively, all the allowances were N14.4 million per month. You have a wardrobe allowance, a vehicle allowance, and other allowances put together that were N14.4 million, including the N1 million salary.
“It is about N29 million now. N29 million looks big on paper. I’m saying this as an honest man. I’m not trying to support the National Assembly, and I’ve been a member of that vilified institution for five years. I am not standing with them, but I’ll bear the facts on the table.”
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Abbo further expressed his personal struggles and how he became poorer after quitting his business to become a senator.
He added: “I had to leave the company I founded, in which I was the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, to go into governance when I won the election.
“I had to start subsiding my life because the money that was allocated to my office was absolutely nothing considering the demand and challenges faced by my own constituents on a daily basis.
“I had a case of just one person I took to the hospital; I spent N14 million on one person.
“And every month, from all over Adamawa State and other states, my office was besieged with people looking for help.
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“I had to start calling some state governors to help me with cases that are being brought from their states into my office.”
Abbo further alleged that some state governors go home with up to N1 billion for state responsibilities.
“From N14 million, I was paying for people’s scholarships, subsiding people’s expenses while a state governor in this country is going home with over N700 million security vote every month, some go home with N1 billion to do other security issues,” he said.
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“I am poorer, much poorer as a man when I became a politician than I was before I became a politician,” Abbo added.
The Nation reported that Senate spokesman Adeyemi Adaramodu (APC – Ekiti South) claimed that no senator earns N21million monthly as salary and allowances.
In a statement, Senator Adaramodu said that “running cost” is different from the salary and personal allowances of the lawmakers.