An All Progressives Congress (APC) senator, representing Ogun West, Solomon Adeola, who was part of the 9th Assembly, has claimed that Adams Oshiomhole, another APC senator representing Edo North, said in an interview that senators of the 9th Assembly looted their offices at the end of their tenure.
Adeola made this known on the floor of the Red Chamber, during the plenary session held on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
“Mr President, the matter arising has to do with one of our colleagues (Adams Oshiomhole) that granted a television interview concerning the 9th Senate which I was a member. On this said programme, the distinguished senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, told the whole world that we looted our offices, that chairs, tables, televisions, were carted away by the Senators,” Adeola said as he raised a point of order.
Claim: Adams Oshiomhole said in an interview that members of the 9th Senate looted their offices
Verification
To confirm the veracity of the claim, the CDD War Room assessed the interview, where Adams Oshiomhole was said to have made the statement, and here is what we found.
In the interview with Channels Television, the former governor of Edo State spoke to issues bordering on the recent subsidy removal and the high cost of governance in Nigeria.
When asked to defend the huge allocation of funds linked to the National Assembly, Oshiomhole said he was yet to know the pay structure of the federal legislature. He added that he had just resumed as a lawmaker, and there had been no communication yet about his statutory salary.
The former national chairman of the ruling APC, went further to say, “Let me tell you one thing that the National Assembly is not talking about and I don’t know why those who have the duty to speak are not speaking about it. I was shocked by the level of vandalisation of properties of the National Assembly. Their televisions were carted away. Carpets are carted away. Senators’ chairs are carted away.”
Oshiomhole did not say in the interview that the senators looted their offices, as he only expressed concerns over the rate at which certain items in the senators’ offices were found missing despite the heavy presence of security officers in the NASS complex.
While refuting the claim, Oshiomhole said, “At no time did I say senators looted their offices. I only said offices were vandalised and that many senators had to use their personal money to purchase basic items for their offices. I was defending the erroneous impression out there that we appropriated N70 billion to ourselves.”
Verdict: Misleading
The CDD War Room confirms that Adams Oshiomhole did not say that senators of the 9th Assembly looted their offices, as he only expressed concerns over the rate at which some items were found missing in senators’ offices despite the presence of security personnel in the NASS.
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