Members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday launched an agitation for a N7m increase in their quarterly allowances, barely 24 hours after resuming from a two-month recess.

Each member of the House currently enjoys  N27m per quarter  as allowances but the lawmakers  want the sum jerked up to N35m, The PUNCH learnt.

Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, reportedly had a  hectic time calming  frayed nerves at an executive session on Wednesday.

Some of the lawmakers, in seeking an  increased allowance, at the closed door session, reportedly raised questions of financial impropriety against the leadership of the House.

They reportedly questioned how the   “N5m” budgeted for each member’s medical expenses and insurance was utilised by the House.

One of the lawmakers at the session told our correspondent that “transparency and accountability were the main issues discussed at the executive session.”

“There are 360 members; we have funds budgeted for medical allowances and insurance.

“If you put aside some funds for these sub-heads, which is about N5m, we have to know how this money is being utilised.”

Tambuwal was said to have used the session, which lasted for over two hours, to explain to his  aggrieved colleagues that the leadership was transparent in the running of House accounts.

A source said he explained that the delay in the payment of pending allowances was caused by paucity of funds.

The speaker reportedly tried to convince members that there was the need to prudently manage resources.

He reportedly called for the account books of the House in a bid to convince his colleagues that no lawmaker’s funds had been taken for any unofficial purposes.

via Punch