The newly elected Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yusuf Suleiman Lasun has laughed off calls from some persons loyal to the All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, asking him to resign.
He said he would never bow to the call for his resignation because the June 9 election followed due process.
Addressing journalists on the sidelines of Tuesday’s inauguration of the 36-member House Adhoc Committee on Welfare, Lasun said, “It is not correct, that (call for resignation) is speculation. Why will I resign when I went through an election?”
The lawmaker defended the N120 billion budget appropriated for the National Assembly for 2015.
He said the impression that senators and members of the House were earning “overblown” salaries and allowances was baseless.
He said, “When you talk about salary it has to be tied to something, let me tell you this, for the last three years, with exception of 2015, the budget of National Assembly has been N150billion, and that is exactly 2.67 per cent of the total budget of the federation.
“So I don’t know where people see this when they say it (National Assembly Budget) is 25 per cent of the budget of the federation. The budget of the National Assembly is 2.67 per cent of the federation, so it is not overblown.
“People have suddenly forgotten or they don’t know that there are 469 members of the National Assembly, and each with five aides and they will be paid from the N150 billion. The assembly itself has technocrats and staffers. We have the National Assembly Commission, all of them draw their salaries and allowances from this N150 billion.
“So, when people talk, they always think it’s only the House of Reps members and the Senators that collect the N150 billion and again don’t forget that for 2015 budget, the money has been reduced to N120 billion,” he said.
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