Godswill Akpabio, the president of the Senate, has lamented the damage done to the Senate’s reputation by the accusations of budget padding that were brought about by Senator Abdul Ningi’s interview.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Akpabio made this claim and voiced concerns about the harm the scandal was causing to the Senate’s integrity.
In a recent interview with BBC Hausa, Ningi, who represents Bauchi Central, said that the National Assembly had authorized a N25 trillion budget for 2024, as opposed to the N28.7 trillion that the Federal Government had put into effect.
In an open dialogue, Akpabio criticized the damage the accusation had caused to the Senate’s credibility.
He expressed displeasure with Ningi’s first interview and his second, in which he appeared to support his original allegation of budget padding.
“Nigerians are bashing the Senate. Many Nigerians will never in future come back to respect this chamber. The integrity of this chamber has been totally damaged and we wanted you to repair it with your speech.
“Instead of that, you said you have more documents to prove what you are saying. This thing is in the public glare. I have not received full details up to this moment. If you had given me full details, I would have been able to know what you know.
“So far, what you know is only known to you, it is not known to any other person. I don’t know how you rushed to the press carrying different versions. The social media is very fast. From Canada, the United States, everywhere, the story was budget padding by the Senate.
“I can quote a section of the Premium Times that said ‘this is the highest level of budget padding in Nigeria’s history where the budget passed a budget of N25 trillion but what we collect was N28 trillion,” he said.
