BREAKING: 2024 budget allegedly padded by over ₦3trn, Northern Senators to meet Tinubu
...Say what President is implementing is different from what we passed
Joseph Irikefe
The Northern Senators Forum (NSF), said it would meet President Bola Tinubu over alleged N3 trillion padding discovered in the 2024 budget.
Chairman of the Forum, Senator Abdul Ningi, disclosed this during an interview with the BBC, Hausa Service on Saturday
Ningi said the Forum had commissioned consultants to scrutinise the 2024 budget to show how N3 trillion was surreptitiously added to the amount passed by lawmakers.
He also said the Forum would soon confront Senate President Godswill Akpabio with its findings concerning the N3 trillion alleged padding.
He said: “For the first time in Nigerian history, today we are operating two different budgets. One budget approved by National Assembly signed by President Bola Tinubu and the one implemented by presidency. The one approved by us is ₦25 trillion while the one operating by Federal Government is ₦28 trillion. Apparently we discovered ₦3 trillion was inserted into the budgets without locations.
“This is the highest budget padding happened in Nigerian history under Sen Akpabio watched. We resolved as people’s representatives to see President Tinubu on this issue, with facts and figures, to ask him if he is aware of this embarrassment or not, then from there we will take action. \
“Let Nigerians be patience with us. This is a national issue; it affects all Nigerians irrespective of party, tribe or religion “.
In the BBC interview, Ningi spoke on the plans by the Forum to review the 2024 budget, said: “This is true, for the past three months, we have engaged consultants to review the budget for us. We have some experts that are working on it line by line.
“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.”
On alleged discovery of N3 trillion padding in the budget, Ningi added: “For example, it was said that there was a budget of N28 trillion but what was passed was N25 trillion.
“So there is N3 trillion on top, where are they, where is it going? So, we need to know this. There are a lot of things.
“We are coming up with a report and we will show the president himself and ask him if he is aware or not.”