The upper legislative chamber is once again under scrutiny as Senate President Godswill Akpabio faces accusations of budget padding totaling N4 trillion.
Several lawmakers, predominantly from the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), confronted Akpabio, alleging that the 2024 budget was padded with projects worth N4 trillion.
The confrontation, led by Abdul Ningi, the chairman of the NSF, took place during a tense meeting at the Senate President’s Guest House in Maitama on Thursday.
Accompanying Akpabio were Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin and Chief Whip Ali Ndume. According to reports from Premium Times, the northern senators accused Akpabio of surreptitiously inserting projects into the budget without proper location specifications. Additionally, they claimed that the budget unfairly favored certain regions over others, particularly marginalizing the northern and southern parts of the country.
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During the heated exchange, the northern senators asserted that the rushed passage of what they described as “the most fraudulent budget in the history of Nigeria” was orchestrated by Akpabio. They alleged that upon scrutinizing the budget, they discovered it predominantly served Akpabio’s interests and those of his associates.
In response to the accusations, Akpabio reportedly claimed ignorance, suggesting that the alleged insertions might have occurred during a period of hospitalization. Despite attempts to defend himself, Akpabio failed to provide a satisfactory explanation, leaving the senators dissatisfied.
The meeting concluded with Akpabio promising to address the senators’ concerns, although the resolution of the brewing crisis remains uncertain.
“For the last three months, we have employed private financial auditors to extensively examine the 2024 budget. We have uncovered significant unauthorized changes and additions in the budget that would have a widespread negative impact on the nation as a whole,” he said.
“We are supposed to meet with the senate president and show him the irregularities we saw in the budget and let him know our concerns. we will not agree and support spending money on what we are not aware of.
“Because apart from the budget National Assembly passed, some people went behind our back and prepared another budget we are not aware of. There were inclusions we don’t know about, but our experts are still working on it.
“Example, we had a budget of N28 trillion but after our thorough checks we found out that it was a budget of N25 trillion. How and where did we get the additional N3 trillion from, what are we spending it for?
“And there are many other issues we have discovered. We are going to meet with the president and show him, we will ask him if he is aware of all these things that are happening. We will show him and ask him if he is aware of it, and what he intends to do to those who partake in the whole manipulations and inclusions.”
Akpabio’s spokesperson, Eseme Eiyboh, was not available for comments as at the time of writing this story.
Source: PREMIUM TIMES