Following a media report that lashed the House of Representative members for receiving a chunk of N100million out of the N500billion approved by the National Assembly for president Tinubu as palliative. The house of Reps has denied receiving any money as palliative from the executive arm of government.
This was contained in a statement released by the green chamber through its spokesperson, Akin Rotimi who disclosed that the House was compelled to respond to the media reports credited to the National Assistant Secretary General of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Christopher Onyeka who claimed the executive had given N100million to the National Assembly as palliative.
Rotimi described the allegation as baseless void of any fact saying, “Transparency and truth in public discourse are necessary for a functioning democracy. While we doubt that Mr Onyeka was actually conveying the official position of the NLC on this claim, it is nonetheless important to correct such misinformation.
The statement added, “We state categorically that Mr Onyeka lied in his claim that National Assembly members were given N100 million as palliatives. For the avoidance of doubt, at no time did members of the House of Representatives receive any money from the executive arm as palliatives. We, therefore, consider this statement malicious, irresponsible, and in bad faith.
“We consider it irresponsible and most unfortunate that Mr Onyeka would misrepresent facts in a bid to lend credence to otherwise valid demands of the NLC while seeking to denigrate the National Assembly and inciting the public against the institution.”
Rotimi laments that NLC, being a critical stakeholder in the development of the country, it has a voice, and if care is not taken, it risks delegitimizing that same voice if it tore the line of fallacy through misleading Nigerian in its legitimate agitations.
Meanwhile, The House subsequently demanded an immediate retraction of this “lie” and a public apology from NLC.
