Senate Denies Padding 2024 Budget
The Nigerian Senate has rubbished reports of padding the 2024 appropriation budget by some N4 trillion.
In a statement made available to Senate Correspondents, Senate Committee Chairman on Media and Publicity, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, questioned the motives of those spreading falsehoods despite the transparent process the budget underwent before being assented to by President Bola Tinubu.
Senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi, alleged another budget different from what was passed on the floor of the National Assembly was the one being implemented with a padding of N3 trillion.
Ningi claimed the operating budget now stood at N28 trillion, whereas what the Senate passed was N25 trillion.
According to Ningi, speaking as a guest during an interview with BBC on Saturday, experts had been reviewing the budget and a report would be presented to President Bola Tinubu, to ascertain if he knew about the alteration.
He said: “We have some experts that are working on it line by line. We have seen the huge damage that was done not only to the north but the entire country in that budget. We are supposed to sit with the Senate President to inform him about what we have observed.
“We want to show him what we have seen in the budget that is not acceptable, we will not accept them and we don’t want the country to continue spending money on those things. Apart from what the National Assembly did on the floor, there was another budget that was done underground which we didn’t know.
“The new things we have discovered in the budget were not known to us. We haven’t seen them in the budget that was debated and considered on the floor of the National Assembly.”
However, the Senate spokesman said the budget document detailing expected revenue and expenditure was already in the public domain, emphasizing that the 10th Senate led by Senator Godswill Akpabio was not aware of any altered version.
The statement read: “There is no budget padding as far as the Senate and the National Assembly are concerned. The National budget is a public document that explicitly states the expected revenue and expenditure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The Senate, under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio, is not aware of any altered execution of the 2024 appropriation mandate, as approved.
“The budget presentation and approval processes were conducted in the public eye, and the Presidential assent was also part of a public ceremony.
“Any infractions would have been brought before the Senate, if any.
“The general public should rest assured that there is no budget padding anywhere, and we are confident that the 2024 appropriation law shall be strictly executed under strict legislative oversight.”
