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Following the public outcry that has greeted what has been termed the ‘jumbo’ allowance of delegates to the National Conference, one of the delegates has declared that it is actually the cheapest in the history of the country.
The delegate, Senator Anthony Adefuye, who was chairman of a book presentation by a former member of the House of Representatives and co-delegate, Moshood Salvador in Lagos, on Wednesday, said the noise about how much to be paid to each delegate is uncalled for as the amount in question has been blown out of proportion.
“I think there has been a lot of exaggeration about the pay. The pay is far less than what is being reported. It is not up to N2million at all. It is slightly less than N1.5 million per two weeks”, he said.
He continued: “But let me say to you, for instance, I stay in a hotel where I pay N67, 000.000 per day. I have a car hire that I pay N12, 000 a day to take me to and fro the conference venue. Then I dry clean my dress almost every day, which costs me about N5, 000. So, it is not that jumbo as some people erroneously think. If it were that I reside in Abuja it would not have cost me much. For people who do not reside in Abuja but come all the way to pay for accommodation, transport and food, I think this is the cheapest conference they have attended”.
On the purported call for allowances by some delegates for their aides, Adefuye, who disclosed that he would be pushing for a parliamentary system of government and state police, said it was misconstrued.
“That was misconstrued. What we said was that they should give our aides tags to access the conference. Some of us are old and we are asking them to give us tags for them. You cannot access the conference without the tags on you. Somebody said we were asking for allowances for aides, no. Nobody ever asked for allowances for his or her aide”, he said.
