Shehu Sani, a former federal lawmaker from Kaduna, claims that his colleagues turned against him after he revealed his allowances and pay as a member of the National Assembly in the past.
The leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that he was the first lawmaker in the history of Nigeria to reveal that N13.5m had been given to federal lawmakers as allowances and payments.
In an interview with The Punch, Sani claimed that the revelation caused a lot of his former coworkers to become angry and suspicious of him because they believed he shouldn’t have revealed such a payment that should have remained a secret.
It took the intervention of the then-Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and his then-deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, according to Sani, to avert plans to punish and suspend him from the Senate.
He claimed that if he had been fined and suspended, Nigerians would have stormed the National Assembly, so Saraki and Ekeremadu intervened to save the Senate.
He said: “Lawmakers at the National Assembly know that each time they go on a public holiday or recess, there is a certain amount of money that is credited to their accounts. This time, it would not have been controversial if it was done silently.
“I happened to be the first legislator in the history of Nigeria to disclose allowances and payments made to legislators, and I know it came with a price to me because I earned the anger and distrust of many of my colleagues, who felt that I was coming to the National Assembly and should not have unveiled such payment that ought to be done in secret. Well, I did so to clear my own conscience and to send a message to the whole country.
“My defence was that I didn’t say that all of you were getting N13.5m, and I just said that I had been receiving an alert of N13.5m and a salary of N720,000. So, if you are not receiving that, you can tell the world that you are not receiving that.
“But I became an enemy to many of them until later when time took over. I think Bukola Saraki, the then Senate President, saved me because I could have been penalised and suspended from the Senate at that time.
“That time, Saraki and (Ike) Ekweremadu stepped in to ensure that I wasn’t suspended. They also stepped in to save the Senate because if I had been penalised and suspended, Nigerians would have stormed the National Assembly. So, they allowed the matter.”
Sani said he did not regret his action, stressing that he went to the Senate as an activist who was one of those hammering on the humongous amount of money that is paid to legislators.
