Senator insists N3.7trn projects in 2024 budget unaccounted for
By Tunde Opalana
The chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), Senator Abdul Ningi has insisted that projects worth N3.7 trillion in the 2024 Appropriation Act cannot be accounted for.
Ningi, who spoke at a media briefing in Abuja on Monday, however denied earlier report quoting him as saying that President Bola Tinubu is operating two separate 2024 budgets.
Ningi in an earlier interview with the BBC Hausa Service, had claimed that the Northern Senators Forum had uncovered discrepancies and padding of the 2024 budget figure to the tune of N3 trillion.
According to him, the budget estimate presented to the legislature by President Tinubu was N25 trillion and not the N28.7 trillion bill assented to by the President.
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He added that the N3 trillion differential was meant to accommodate certain projects that were not discussed during the budgeting process.
The Bauchi central senator had also stated that the Northern senators would be taking up the issue with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio after a meeting with President Tinubu over the matter.
But the Presidency had on Sunday debunked the senator’s claims, described the them as “a strange view, unfounded and blatant lies.”
The Senate Information Committee chairman, Yemi Adaramodu also faulted Ningi’s claims, just as three of the 58-member NSF distanced themselves from the budget padding allegation.
The Presidency, through the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, had said there’s no truth whatsoever in Ningi’s allegation.
In a statement, Onanuga clarified that the budget estimate presented to the National Assembly by President Tinubu was N27.5 trillion.
He gave the breakdown as N9.92 trillion recurrent expenditure, N8.25 for debt servicing, and N8.7 trillion for capital expenditure.
The Presidency said there was no way the Senate could have debated and passed a N25 trillion budget that was not presented to the National Assembly in the first place.
Ningi, who initially claimed to be speaking on behalf of the Northern Senators Forum, later said the views he expressed during his BBC interview were his personal opinions and not that of the Northern Senators Forum.
