N/Assemby members who don’t attend sitting should not be paid allowance – Nigeria’s Senate Candidate

NIGERIA

A Senatorial Candidate contesting the Central Senatorial District election in northcentral Plateau state, Tangshak Ayuba Larab has said Senators who did not attend sitting should not be paid allowances for the section they did not sit.

Mr. Larab who resigned as a senior lecturer in 2018 at the University of Jos, to join politics, said if elected as a Senator, he would also sponsor a bill that would ensure that the huge emolument of the National Assembly members is cut down by making it a part time legislature.

Speaking recently at a forum organized by the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Plateau, the aspirant who is contesting on the platform of the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN), added that what the present National Assembly members are collecting is too humongous.

He pointed out that if by the grace of God he is elected senator, he would try by all means through sponsoring of bills, to make sure that the senators or members of the National Assembly collect only sitting allowance and nothing more.

Larab also pointed out that he would also make sure that no member of the National Assembly collects more than what he used to collect from his organization before coming to the legislative house.

“The emolument of the National Assembly members should be on part time basis which should be personal to all the members. Those who don’t attend the senate session should not be paid their sitting allowance. Up till now, nobody knows what they are earning. They will just be given huge sums of money like that.

“How can you be given a running cost and you don’t retire it? This is another window for corruption,” he contended. He said he would not allow fear to conquer him, based on his exposure and academic credentials at the senate.

On the zoning formula adopted by the Plateau central district, Larab said he was not happy at all with the system which he said brews ineptitude and mediocrity, adding that if were satisfied with that damned zoning formula, he would not have come out to contest.