The Senate has disagreed with its members from the northern part of the country that the 2024 budget was padded.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, said in a statement at the weekend that the upper chamber is not aware of the budget padding allegation.
Senator Adaramodu was reacting to an allegation by the senator representing Bauchi Central, Senator Abdul Ningi, who said that the budget passed by the Senate in December 2023 was padded with N3 trillion.
Senator Ningi, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had told BBC Hausa that the lawmakers sought the service of a private auditor and discovered irregularities in the budget.
“For 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?” Senator Ningi said.
He said the northern senators under the aegis of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF) will soon meet with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and President Bola Tinubu to inform them about their findings.
“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,” he said.
Senator Ningi said the northern elites are not happy with the government because of the neglect of the region.
Reacting to the comment, Senator Adaramodu said the upper chamber is not aware of the budget padding allegation.
He explained that the budget is a public document, which states the expected revenue and the expenditure of the country.
“There is no budget padding as far as the Senate and the National Assembly are concerned. The national budget is a public document, which expressly states the expected revenue and the expenditure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The Senate, under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio, is not aware of any varied execution of the 2024 appropriation mandate, as approved.
“The budget presentation and approval processes were made in the public glare, while the presidential assent was also in a public ceremony. Any infractions would have been brought before the Senate, if any.
“The general public should be at rest that there is no budget padding anywhere and we are confident that the 2024 appropriation law shall be strictly executed, under strict legislative oversight,” Senator Adaramodu said.
In December 2023, the two arms of the National Assembly passed the 2024 appropriation bill, increasing its size from N27.5 trillion proposed by Tinubu to N28.7 trillion.
The budget has N1.7 trillion as statutory transfers, N8.7 trillion as recurrent expenditure, and N9.9 trillion as capital expenditure.