The Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, has condemned the controversy surrounding the Senate’s budget of N5,550 billion for the purchase of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs).

He said Nigerian senators deserve SUVs and it is an insult to say otherwise, Punch Newspaper reports.

The status of a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not undeserving of an SUV, he told journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.

“What is the problem there? It is an insult to say that a senator of the Federal Republic cannot ride a jeep in Nigeria. It is an insult. The N5.5bn is from the National Assembly fund and it is budgeted for every year, which they will pay back at the end of the tenure.

“I was a permanent secretary. I know what ministers get; we cannot even compare ourselves to ministers because we are higher than the minister(s). For you to say that a senator of the Federal Republic cannot drive a jeep today — come on, that is an insult.

“Go and tell the people that the work that we do is more than the work of ministers. The weight that is on me today; there is no minister of the Federal Republic that has it. The collapse of the local government areas across the country had placed a burden on senators who “carry loads outside their purview,” he said.

Many Nigerians including the senator often describe all SUVs as ‘jeep’.

The lawmaker explained that each of the 109 senators in the upper chamber would get one SUV, which would be paid for at the end of their four-year legislative tenure.