Mukhtar Betara, Chairman of the House Committee on the Federal Capital Territory, has denied allegations that members of the Nigerian Senate and the House of Representatives received financial inducements to approve the declaration of a State of Emergency in Rivers State.
Investigative journalist Jafaar Jafaar had earlier posted on X that lawmakers were allegedly given $15,000 (Senate) and $10,000 (House of Representatives) in foreign currency to support President Bola Tinubu’s emergency proclamation. However, Betara dismissed the claims, insisting that no National Assembly member was financially influenced in the decision-making process.
Betara clarified that members of the House of Representatives only received $5,000 as Sallah gifts, emphasizing that the money was not a bribe but part of a long-standing tradition within the National Assembly. He did not disclose the source of the funds but maintained that the gesture was unrelated to the political crisis in Rivers State.
Jafaar further quoted Betara as saying, “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.”
According to Betara, this practice is an annual tradition akin to Santa Claus’s generosity, reinforcing that it had no political motivations. Despite these explanations, the controversy surrounding the financial distributions continues to generate public debate.