The Northern Senators Forum said it has uncovered an N3 trillion insertion in the 2024 budget signed by President Bola Tinubu.
The chairman of the forum, Abdul Ningi [PDP, Bauchi Central], made the revelation during an interview with the BBC Hausa Service on Saturday.
Mr Ningi accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio and some of his cronies of the alleged budget padding.
He also stated that there was another budget that was “done underground” which he said the lawmakers did not know.
He also said that the Northern Senators’ Forum would come up with a report and engage Messrs Akpabio and Tinubu on the matter.
Mr Ningi 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.
“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. This is what we intended to do. We are to meet the president,” he said.
Mr Ningi said the forum would also talk to Mr Tinubu about the Mambilla Power Project, Ajaokuta Steel Company and the River Niger dredging.
He also said Mr Tinubu’s administration was not living up to the expectations of the North.
He said, “The most painful thing is that northerners stood for him and did all they could to bring him to power, but unfortunately, there was no agreement between them and the president on what should be done to the North and the northerners.
“Especially taking into consideration the importance and significant projects that the North has been yearning and aspiring to get for a long time. For example, the Ajaokuta project, the Mambilla power project, the dredging of river Niger and other notable projects.
“What mostly disturbs my sleep is that we had a budget in 2013 and 2014 in which we earmarked billions of Naira, but it was neglected by President Goodluck Jonathan. When President Buhari came, we thought it was one of the projects he would pay attention to, but unfortunately, it wasn’t possible for over eight years.”
Reacting, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Yemi Adaramodu, however dismissed the allegations.
Comments are closed.