There is looming trouble in the Nigerian Senate as the Northern senators under the aegis of Northern Senators Forum (NSF) reportedly confronted the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, over alleged padding of the 2024 budget with about N4 trillion worth of projects.
Representatives of the 58-member Forum led by its chairman, Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi), confronted Mr Akpabio at a meeting on Thursday in the latter’s Guest House located in the Maitama District of Abuja.
Members of the Senate leadership present at the tension-soaked meeting, apart from Mr Akpabio, were his deputy, Barau Jibrin (APC, Kano), and Chief Whip, Ali Ndume (APC, Borno).
Recall that the Senate passed the 2024 budget of N28.7 trillion on December 30, 2023.
The approved budget was N1.2 trillion higher than the N27.5 trillion President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on November 29 of the same year.
Meanwhile, during the meeting, convened at the instance of the Forum, the northern senators accused the senate president of inserting projects worth N4 trillion in the 2024 budget.
They alleged the projects, which had no locations, were discreetly inserted into the budget. They also claimed that the budget was lopsided against the North and some parts of the South.
The northern senators also accused Mr Akpabio of railroading the senators to hurriedly pass “the most fraudulent budget in the history of Nigeria”.
They claimed at the meeting that after clinically scrutinising the budget, they came to the conclusion that it was “self-serving in favour of Mr Akpabio and his cronies”.
A source told Premium Times that Mr Akpabio could not defend the allegation but said that the projects complained about were probably inserted into the budget by unknown persons while he (the senate president) was hospitalised during the budgetary process.
“He couldn’t defend the allegation. Instead, he said he didn’t know how it happened. He said it may have happened when he was hospitalised,” one senator who attended the meeting,” the source said.
It was also learnt that the senate president, who claimed ignorance of the insertions, asked Mr Ndume if he knew how it happened but the latter said he was not aware.
Before the meeting ended, Mr Akpabio assured the senators that he would look into their grievances.
The lawmakers did not leave the senate president without asking him to “make amends,” another source said.
However, some senators who attended the meeting said they were surprised that hours after meeting the senate president, some lawmakers loyal to him began to mobilise southern senators to counter the move of their northern colleagues.
The northern senators had days before confronting Mr Akpabio met at an undisclosed location in Abuja, where they resolved to challenge the senate president, who subsequently agreed to meet them last Thursday 7 March.
It was learnt that Mr Akpabio’s move to mobilise southern senators may have informed Mr Ningi’s interview with the BBC Hausa Service where he claimed that there were two federal budgets in operation.
He said, “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.
“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.”
The Senate on Saturday has dismissed reports on the padding of the 2024 budget.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, made the clarification in a statement in Abuja.
He stressed that the budget went through a transparent process before it was signed by President Tinubu.
The spokesman stressed that the Senate was not aware of any altered version of the budget.
The statement read: “There is no budget padding as far as the Senate and the National Assembly are concerned. The National budget is a public document that explicitly states the expected revenue and expenditure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The Senate, under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio, is not aware of any altered execution of the 2024 appropriation mandate, as approved.
“The budget presentation and approval processes were conducted in the public eye, and the Presidential assent was also part of a public ceremony.
“Any infractions would have been brought before the Senate, if any.
“The general public should rest assured that there is no budget padding anywhere, and we are confident that the 2024 appropriation law shall be strictly executed under strict legislative oversight.”
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