Mr. Kabir Abdullahi Barkiya, a Katsina lawmaker single motorcycle distributed as his constituency project costs N1.9 million MAWA FOUNDATION has learned.
Mr. Barkiya, who represents the people of Katsina Central Senatorial District in the Senate, had in 2020 nominated purchase of motorcycles to be distributed to his people as part of his constituency project.
The federal government in 2020 allocated the sum of N95 million to the project, to enable purchase of the motorcycles.
Tracka, a public accountability organization that was present at the presentation of the motorcycles, disclosed that only 50 motorcycles were purchased and distributed to some selected persons who are considered loyal to the party.
However, data analysis by the MAWA FOUNDATION shows that Katsina lawmaker may have purchased a single motorcycle for N1.9 million having gotten N95 million allocation from the federal government and purchased 50 motorcycles.
Checks by MAWA show that a single brand of a motorcycle the Katsina lawmaker distributed, sells between N280k to N300k, and, worse still, the lawmaker claims a single motorcycle costs N1.9 million having purchased 50 bikes for N95 million allocation.
Constituency projects are nominated by the lawmakers for the needs of their constituents and recommend same to the executive during budgeting; this will help to improve the living condition of the people in their constituents through building local infrastructures.
However, Nigerian experience has shown that Lawmakers do not execute constituency projects as they appear in the national budget, and getting them to account for monies approved for such intervention is always difficult.
And, often, community residents are not aware such monies have been given to their representatives, and that makes accountability very difficult.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Katsina lawmaker for a response.