VANGUARD
The sharing formula of funds for constituency projects yesterday threw the Senate into a rowdy session, as Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe, representing Cross River North, alleged that while senior senators got N500 million, others got as low as N75 million.
Recall that the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), had alleged that the 2024 budget was padded by N3 trillion.
Tempers rose as the lawmakers debated Ningi’s allegation, sequel to a motion by Senator Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun West), who said his privilege as a senator had been breached.
Two former senators, George Sekibo, and Shehu Sani, in their immediate reactions, described what happened on the floor of the Senate yesterday as embarrassing, saying the matter ought to have been discussed behind closed doors, after which it should have been referred to the Ethics and Privileges Committee to save the Senate embarrassment.
Budget padding allegations
Ningi had said in an interview with BBC (Hausa service) that the budget passed by the National Assembly for the 2024 fiscal year was N25 trillion, while the one being implemented by the Presidency was N28.7 trillion.
The National Assembly had passed a budget of N28.7 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year. President Bola Tinubu had proposed N27.5 trillion but the lawmakers jerked it up by N1.2 trillion.
The Ogun West senator said his privilege was breached because he participated in the budgeting process.
“Ningi had maintained that N3 trillion in the budget was not linked to anything,” Adeola said, adding: “My privilege has been breached because I was one of those who participated in the preparation of the budget. With what has transpired in the last three days, my privilege has been breached.”
Ningi got a chance to defend himself, saying he had documents to prove the anomaly.
But the upper legislative chamber immediately descended into chaos when Jarigbe Jarigbe, the senator representing Cross River North, claimed that some “senior senators” got N500 million in the budget for constituency projects.
“Let us wash our dirty linen in public. If we want to go into those issues, all of us are culpable. Some senators here… so-called ‘senior senators’… got N500 million each. I am a ranking senator, I didn’t get N500 million. Did I go to the press? I got only N75 million,’’ Jarigbe said.
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