The current economic recession in the country notwithstanding, the House of Representatives has commenced the disbursement of brand new vehicles to all its 360 members.

The first batch of 28 Peugeot 508 vehicles were supplied on Sunday in Abuja, while another consignment of about 22 cars will be supplied later this week.

The 28 were among the first batch of 50 cars supplied by the Kaduna-based Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, PAN.

Recall that the House had allocated the sum of N3.6bn for the cars in the 2016 budget at a unit price of N10m.

According to the Punch Newspaper, there was an understanding between the House of Reps and the Peugeot company to supply the vehicles in batches because of the huge number of members involved.

The luxury cars are expected to keep arriving Abuja in batches till January, 2017 when all 360 cars would have been supplied.

There are 223 new members in the House of Reps, having come to the National Assembly for the first time in 2015, but both the new and former members will benefit from the luxury cars.

It was gathered that the original plan was to start the delivery of the cars last June, but the delay in the passage of the 2016 budget stalled it.

Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, confirmed that the cars had started arriving.

He said that female members of the House would get theirs first while the male would get theirs in subsequent batches.

On why the House would spend huge amounts of money on luxury cars when the country is in deep recession, Namdas said that the cars were not for luxury.

He reasoned that the 8th Assembly was nearing two years, with members not having vehicles to carry out their duties.

He further explained that the decision to go for Peugeot was in keeping with government’s commitment to patronize made-in-Nigeria products as Peugeot has an assembling plant in Kaduna.

Though the cars are the property of the National Assembly, the management would evaluate the cars after four years and deduct an agreed sum from the severance package of members.