The Senate has finally confirmed that Senator Shehu Sani was in order when he revealed the N45million quarterly allowance that each Senator takes home.
It however said that the emolument of senators has never been a secret.
Spokesman of the Senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the figure Sani gave out about running cost for the offices of senators are contained in various line items and expenditure heads of the budget of the National Assembly, which has been made public.
The confirmation from the Senate spokesman puts paid to the prolonged controversy over the emoluments of the elite lawmakers.
According to him, Senator Shehu Sani did not disclose anything new.
Sani who represents Kaduna Central had made public the figures, saying that senators’ basic monthly salary remains N700,000.
Published last week, the revelation has since triggered commentaries on social media about what has seems a well kept secret.
But Abdullahi dismissed any insinuations that Sani’s colleagues are unhappy with him and said if people had looked critically at the budget of the National Assembly which has since been made public, they would have seen that various line items like travelling , medicals, consultancy and the rest are captured in the budget and they are the funds divided for each senator’s use.
“Almost all holders of elective and appointive offices have running costs allocated to their offices and that cannot be said to be part of their salaries,” Abdullahi stated.