Dealers of Sport Utility Vehicles have commenced the lobby to get the supply of National Assembly lawmakers’ 469 official vehicles.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, however said the upper chamber would procure the lawmakers’ official vehicles from reputable car dealers.
He also said due process would be followed in carrying out the exercise.
Pan Nigeria Limited and Dana Motors, assemblers of the Peugeot and Kia brands of vehicles respectively in Nigeria, confirmed that they had made separate representations to the National Assembly on the issue.
Abdullahi told one of our correspondents on telephone in Abuja that all rules and regulations guiding procurement would be adhered to.
He said, “National Assembly will follow due process and all extant rules and regulations, especially the Public Procurement Act, in purchasing the official vehicles for federal lawmakers from reputable car dealers.”
Abdullahi, in a statement on Friday, described as untrue the claim that the Senate planned to purchase cars worth N47bn. President Muhammadu Buhari gave this indication in his maiden media chat on Wednesday.
He attributed the misinformation to the activities of contractors who failed the due process set by the management team and the Senate services committee.
According to him, certain contractors who had made bids for the supply of the vehicles but felt their bid would not scale through are behind the propaganda against the project.
The Managing Director of the Pan Nigeria Limited, Mr. Ibrahim Boyi, said in an interview on Saturday that the firm had made a presentation of some Peugeot cars to members of the legislature, showing their unique features, the low cost and other benefits for them and the nation.
“We have approached them. Some members of the National Assembly are even using our vehicles as demonstration cars. They need to show more patrotism by patronising what is available locally because this will also create more job opportunities for Nigerians,” he said.
Boyi said apart from showing that their vehicles had been assembled in line with the global Peugeot standard with available easy-to-maintain arrangements, it had demonstrated that they would spend one-third of what was needed for the premium cars on locally assembled vehicles.
He however admitted that “we don’t have the Toyota Land Cruiser equivalent in Nigeria.”
Boyi said Pan Nigeria had gone as far as getting the President to support the ‘Buy made-in-Nigeria crusade’ and expected National Assembly members to buy into it too.
The spokesman for Dana Motors, Mr. Olawale Jimoh, also said the company had a discussion with the National Assembly leaders and was optimistic about getting a part of the new car purchase deal.
Jimoh said the company had, however, not given up on the matter, adding, “we have some people among them rooting for us.”
But a source at the Coscharis Motors, a dealer in premium vehicle brands, said the company was not bothered about the development and types of vehicles that would eventually be purchased by the National Assembly for either the members or the various committees’ oversight functions.
Also, Toyota Nigeria Limited said it had no official comment on the issue. According to the company’s Brand Manager, Mr. Bayo Olawoyin, the TNL does not handle the direct sale of its vehicles but its dealers do.