The controversy surrounding an alleged budget padding amounting to N3.7 trillion took a new turn with the claimed by Senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe representing Cross River North, that some senior senators received N500 million each from the 2024 budget.
Agom-Jarigbe who raised the dust on the matter during a plenary session on Tuesday in the Red Chamber in Abuja, said there is truth to the allegations made by Senator Abudul Ningi who raised who raised the alarm that the 2024 budget has been padded to the tune of 3.7 trillion. Ningi was suspended Tuesday by the Senator Godswill Akpobio led Senate over the matter he raised during a BBC Hausa interview.
“If we want to go into this issue, all of us are culpable. Some senators here, so called senior senators got N500 million each,” Senator Agom-Jarigbe said.
“I am a ranking senator. I didn’t get. Did I go to the press? We don’t have to go into those issues,”
After rowdy deliberations on the matter Senator Ningi was suspended for three months. Senator Akpabio stated that the allegations raised by Ningi representing Bauchi central were grievous.
Following his suspension Ningi resigned his position as the Chairman of Northern Senators Forum.
“I will like to resign my position as the Chairman of the Northern Senators forum. This is of course necessitated by unfolding events in the National Assembly, the North and the Nation at large.
“I will like to specially thank members of the forum for the opportunity given to me for the last eight (8) months to spearhead this very important forum. I believe this forum is very important and fundamental to the progress and development of Northern Nigeria,” the senator said in a statement
Shortly after the Senate session Senator Akpabio, deputy Senate president Barau Jibrin and other colleagues met with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa for a closed door meeting on the matter.
