The Nigerian Senate was recently caught in a budget padding scandal following the alarm raised by Senator Abdul Ahmed Ningi in an interview with the BBC Hausa.
The Bauchi senator alleged that President Bola Tinubu was implementing a 2024 budget different from what was debated and passed by the national assembly.
The Senate subsequently suspended Senator Ningi for three months after it was concluded that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator could not substantiate his allegation with concrete evidence.
Simultaneously, Ningi’s allegation was followed by another alarm raised by Senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe, representing Cross River North senatorial district, who said that some senators got about N500 million each for constituency projects in the 2024 budget.
The allegations had raised some dust in the media and had put the integrity of the national assembly under test.
While some call for the removal of the Senate President, some believe that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should be allowed to investigate the allegation.
Lawyer reacts to budget padding scandal in Senate
One of those who called on the Senate leadership to allow the anti-graft agency EFCC to come in was Barrister Oladotun Hassan, who, in an interview with Legit.ng, maintained that the Senate president cannot resign because all 108 senators have been indicted.
He said: “The 108 members of the national assembly are indicted. Are they going to step out of the national assembly? It is not about the Senate president but each and every member, including Senator Ningi.”
Tinubu speaks on budget padding allegation
President Bola Tinubu, while hosting the senate leaders at an Iftar (breaking of Ramadan fasting) on Thursday night, March 21, stated that he knew what he brought to the house and what was later returned to him.
He said the critics of the budget did not understand what was contained in the budget, “the arithmetic, and did not refer to the baseline of what I brought”.
He went further to commend the Senate leadership, adding that “your integrity is intact.”
However, by counting, no less than three senators have publicly admitted to collecting more than N500 million for their constituency projects in the 2024 budget.
Below is the list of the Senators:
Opeyemi Bamidele
The Senator representing Ekiti Central and the leader of the Senate admitted to collecting more than N500 million on the floor of the Senate during the debate on the matter, which led to the suspension of Senator Ningi.
Bamidele then called on Nigerians to check after 12 months if any senior would not have used the money to carry out the constituency projects as stipulated in the 2024 budget, which was earlier debated and passed by the national assembly.
Senator Ali Ndume
Ndume is one of the outspoken lawmakers in Nigeria’s national assembly. The Borno-born politician had been in the national assembly since 2003, when he was first elected as a member of the House of Representatives.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) senator also could not deny collecting more than N500 million from the 2024 budget President Tinubu was currently implementing.
According to Ndume in an interview on Channels TV, all the ranking senators, including those in the opposition, collected more than the floor members, saying, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than the others.”
Ned Nwoko
The Delta senator and husband to the socialite and Nollywood actress Regina Daniels also disclosed that he got up to the N1 billion constituency project.
Nwoko made the revelation in an interview with Seun Okin on MIC ON PODCAST, stating that it was what every senator negotiated for that they got.
Source: legit.ng
