Why we did not go for Nigeria-assembled SUVs – Senator Karimi

Why we did not go for Nigeria-assembled SUVs – Senator Karimi

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services, Sunday Karimi, has explained that members of the Senate and the House of Representatives chose imported Toyota Land Cruisers because of “quality and durability”.

Kaimi, who represents Kogi West Senatorial District, in the 10th National Assembly, spoke during a live appearance on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Wednesday.

Controversy has continued to trail the planned purchase of luxury vehicles worth N160m each by federal lawmakers with many Nigerians criticising the idea.

Asked why the lawmakers did not want locally assembled vehicles, he said, “Today, we decided for Toyota because Toyota has a name and a longstanding name for quality and durability…As our local manufacturing companies develop, we are going to patronise them in future.”

Karimi said the federal lawmakers “need the vehicles for oversight, to travel all over our constituencies”.

He added that purchasing utility vehicles was not illegal as Nigerian roads are very bad.

“If you look at Nigerian roads all over the federation, we have a serious problem because nothing much has been done in the last years. Most of our roads are terribly bad,” he said.