The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to stop the House of Representatives from procuring and taking delivery of 360 sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for its members, pending the hearing and determination of the application for an injunction filed by the civil society organisation.
LEADERSHIP had earlier reported that the National Assembly bureaucracy was in the phased process of procuring and distributing operational vehicles to the 360 members of the House valued at N57.6bn, in the coming weeks and months.
360 Reps Members To Get Official Vehicles In Coming Weeks
However, SERAP filed an application seeking “an order of interim injunction restraining the National Assembly from procuring, taking delivery and distributing the SUVs to their members, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for an order of interlocutory injunction filed simultaneously in this suit.”
SERAP is also seeking “such further order(s) that the Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance of this suit.”
It would be recalled that SERAP in August filed the suit number FHC/L/CS/1606/2023 before the Federal High Court challenging “the legality of the spending of billions of naira by the National Assembly to purchase exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials.”
The group also sent an open letter to President Bola Tinubu urging him to “put pressure on the leadership of the House of Representatives and stop members from taking delivery of 360 sports utility vehicles (SUVs), pending the hearing and determination of the application for interim injunction.”
In the letter dated October 21, 2023 and signed by SERAP deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation also urged the president to “put pressure on the leadership of the Senate and stop members from taking delivery of the planned procurement of bulletproof SUVs, pending the hearing and determination of the application for interim injunction filed before the Federal High Court.”