The House of Representatives has settled for Peugeot 508 as official vehicles for the 360 members at a total cost of N3.6 billion.
Each vehicle costs N10 million and delivery will be made in two to three months.
Earlier, the Senate had started taking delivery of 108 Toyota Land Cruiser Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) it ordered for members at the cost of N3.8 billion.
Thirty six of the vehicles, which cost N35.1 million each, were delivered last Tuesday and distributed to senators the following day.
However, checks by our reporter indicated that a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV V6 2016 model is sold at N17 million.
The House had already given Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) a letter of intent to supply the cars.
The committee on House services, which is saddled with the responsibility of processing the purchase of the vehicles, met yesterday and took the final decision on the vehicles, it was learnt.
The cars are ostensibly intended for committee work. There are 96 standing committees in the House, but the cars would be shared in such a manner that each member would get one.
Initially the House had wanted to buy Camry 2016 model, but the members changed their minds to avoid clash of interest because the sole major distributors of Camry in Nigeria, Vatswani Brothers, were under an investigation by the House.
The source said the National Assembly tenders’ board would meet this week on the matter and the cars might be supplied within the next few months.
The spokesman of the House Rep Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa) said it was true that the House had settled on Peugeot 508 at the cost of N10 million each.
He said they decided to settle for a Nigerian company in order to boost the company’s revenue base, adding that the vehicles would be supplied between the next two and three months.
Namdas insisted that the vehicles would be for committee activities and not for the personal use of the lawmakers.
Our source added that PAN would ship all the parts of the vehicles from its mother company in France and assemble them in Nigeria.
