Budget Padding: Rowdy Session as Senators Confront Ningi Over Allegation

 

The Senate has been thrown into a state of chaos on Tuesday.

 

This happened after Senator Olamilekan Adeola raised an order about the budget padding issue allegation made by another senator.

 

Senator Abdul Ningi had earlier alleged that N3.7 trillion was padded into the 2024 budget.

 

Ningi is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Population and represents  PDP, Bauchi Central.

 

While the parties called for a probe into the allegation, some northern senators disowned the claims made by Ningi, saying the Bauchi State senator did not speak for them.

 

The Bauchi senator, however, maintained his position on Monday that on N3.7tn could not be accounted for in the 2024 budget.

 

In the plenary on Tuesday, Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Ogun West) raised a motion that there is an urgent need to address the false allegation by Ningi.

 

Adeola, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, read the transcript of Ningi’s Hausa BBC interview on the floor of the house after Senate President, Godswill Akpabio called for a committee of the whole house.