The Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday opposed additional N9billion expenditure on Vice President Namadi Sambo’s official residence, which is being built.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Smart Adeyemi, who visited the site, said spending such a huge amount of money was uncalled for, particularly now that Nigerians cannot afford three square meals.
The Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Adamu Ismail had told the lawmakers that the project was awarded in 2009 at N7billion.
The proposed additional N9billion, he said, is needed for furniture, fencing, two more protocol guest houses, a banquet hall and security gadgets.
Ismail said the proposal was not included in the original scope of work being handled by construction giant Julius Berger Nigeria Limited.
Adeyemi said: “The National Assembly is not going to appropriate additional N9billion for the project, especially at a period in this country when people cannot get three square meals.
“The N9billion is far more than the original cost of the project.”
The Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator Domingo Obende, however, asked the Executive Secretary to submit the additional scope of work for which the fund is required to the committee for scrutiny.
Ismail told the lawmakers that the proposed N9billion has been slashed to about N6billion by the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP).
He said: “We have worked out the details and passed to BPP for consideration. They (BPP) have sent it back to us with their observation.
“We requested for N9billion but now it came to about N 6billion.”
To Adeyemi, the N14 billion is indefensible, “in view of present realities”.
He said: “Now you are asking us to approve a total sum of about N14 billion and this is just the Vice President’s residence.
“N14billion, to me, is huge for the Vice President’s house. If you are even talking of N10 billion that would be understandable.
“The reality is that N14 billion is indefensible and that is our submission. In Nigeria, there are still many people with empty stomach. So, we have to look at budgeting in relation to the needs of the people.”
Vice President Sambo lives in Aguda House, one of the buildings officially designated as Presidential guest houses.
President Goodluck Jonathan also stayed in the Aguda House when he was vice president in the Yar’Adua presidency.
At the outset of this Republic in 1999, Vice President Atiku Abubakar stayed in the house which the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) currently occupies.
During the second term of the Obasanjo presidency – when there was no row between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku, it was then declared that the then VP was staying in the official residence of the CJN according to the Abuja masterplan.
The former VP then moved to his private residence – shunning the Aguda House where he was told to relocate.
The Vice President’s residence under construction is a sprawling one-storey building sitting on a wide expanse of land beside the Millennium Park and behind the Yellow House headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS).
The edifice has a wide outer and inner living rooms and sitting rooms. There is a chapel and mosque on the left and right of the house respectively.
The building has been plastered with work on the central cooling system still ongoing. The inner sitting room is laid with marble tiles. The sewage and water system has been completed. The doors and windows are yet to be fixed. The landscaping of the compound has commenced but the roads are not tarred and the floor not tiled.