We received $ 5,000 for sallah not $15, 000 bribe to support Rivers emergency rule – Reps member

We received $5,000 for sallah not $15, 000 bribe to support Rivers emergency rule – Reps member

The chairman of the House Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mukhtar Betara has refuted claims that Nigerian senators and representatives were bribed with $15,000 and $10,000, respectively, to approve a State of Emergency in Rivers State.

He said that the $5,000 given to House members was a traditional Sallah gift unrelated to the Rivers State issue.

According to Betara, this gesture is a long-standing practice within the National Assembly and was not intended as an inducement to influence decisions regarding the political crisis in Rivers State

An investigative journalists Jafaar Jafaar, in a post on his X said the lawmaker denied that any member of the National Assembly was given money – in foreign currency – to support the State of Emergency proclamation made by President Bola Tinubu.

Betara, however, said lawmakers of the House of Representatives only received $5,000 as Sallah gifts and not as bribes or inducement to support the president’s decision over the political crisis that rocked Rivers State.

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Although there was no mention of where the $5,000 as Sallah gift came from, Betara said the gesture was a long-standing tradition within the National Assembly and had no connection with the State of Emergency proclamation in Rivers.

Jafaar wrote on X, “The chairman of the House Committee on FCT, Mukhtar Aliyu Betara, has clarified to me that he only shared $5,000 to each member of his committee as a ‘Sallah Gesture’ not an inducement to support emergency rule in Rivers State.

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