Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu has insisted that individual senators bear no responsibility for the controversial procurement of official vehicles for members of the National Assembly, saying all legal and administrative accountability lies squarely with the institution’s bureaucracy.

Adaramodu, who chairs the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs and represents Ekiti South Senatorial District, said lawmakers neither initiate nor supervise the purchase of the vehicles, and therefore should not be dragged into court disputes over the process.

He explained that the National Assembly’s administrative machinery exclusively manages the acquisition, allocation and documentation of official vehicles used for legislative and committee work.

“The bureaucracy determines and provides official vehicles for committee work and legislative assignments. No vehicle is registered in the name of any senator,” he said, stressing that the cars remain government property throughout a lawmaker’s tenure.

According to him, senators only use the vehicles to carry out official duties, and any eventual transfer of ownership can occur solely at the end of a tenure, under clearly defined government rules and payment terms.

Adaramodu argued that any legal challenge arising from the procurement process should be directed at the relevant administrative departments of the National Assembly, not at individual legislators who are merely end users of the vehicles.

“Senators were not taken to court. Procurement is handled by the appropriate departments within the National Assembly bureaucracy. Legislators have no role in the purchasing process,” he stated, adding that the legislature operates under established procurement laws and internal procedures.

His clarification follows a landmark judgment of the Federal High Court in Lagos, which declared unlawful the National Assembly’s N110 billion vehicle procurement and allowance schemes. The court held that the spending breached procurement regulations, constitutional provisions and the public trust.

The suit, filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, targeted Senate President Godswill Akpabio and House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, for themselves and on behalf of all members of both chambers.

In the judgment, Justice Bogoro ruled that lawmakers, as beneficiaries of the expenditure they approved, had placed themselves in a position of conflict of interest, describing the arrangement as self-dealing that undermined their fiduciary duty to Nigerians, especially amid widespread economic hardship.