Members of the Citizen Action to Take Back Nigeria have stormed the National Assembly in a peaceful protest to demand an end to what they described as illegal allowances, which legislators termed as running cost.
The perturbed citizens, who have been camping out at NASS for two days, alleged that the only reason Nigerians are suffering is that most of them are cowards. They lamented that while the lawmakers were collecting huge allowances in the name of “running costs”, children were dying of hunger in the north east due to the brewing humanitarian crisis.
The representative of the group, Mr. Ibrahim Garba, said, “Citizens are demanding that senators should stop stealing through the running cost; they should terminate the running cost. They collect this and citizens are dying.
“We are suffering because we are cowards in our own country. We are here to take back the national assembly. That is why we are here. We are not for the fun of it. When you try to manipulate the budget… you put N7.2 billion in your constituency, then say it’s lobby. What kind of lobby is that?
“We are frustrated because students have no classes, teachers don’t have teaching aides but senators are being paid their allowances. Their convoy alone can build factories. Running cost is ruining our lives. EFCC, ICPC and the police should arrest them, they should consider the citizens, and we need children to go back to school,” Garba said.
