Senate Chamber's Integrity Has Been Completely Damaged, Says Akpabio

Senate President, Godswill Akpabio

Budget padding allegations, according to Akpabio, have “totally damaged” the Senate's integrity.

Nigeria's top lawmaker, Godswill Akpabio, claimed on Tuesday that the Senate's integrity has been mocked in the wake of the controversy surrounding Senator Abdul Ningi's interview.

In a recent interview with BBC Hausa, Ningi, the representative for Bauchi Central, asserted that the N25 trillion budget for 2024 approved by the National Assembly was a departure from the N28.7 trillion being executed by the federal government.

“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,” he said.

“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. Social media is very fast. From Canada, the United States, everywhere, the story was about budget padding by the Senate,” Akpabio stated.

According to Akpabio, who cited a specific media report, the alleged budget padding was referred to as “the highest level of budget padding in Nigeria's history where the budget passed a budget of N25 trillion but what we collected was N28 trillion.”

The head of the Senate recalled that in November of last year, President Tinubu gave the National Assembly a budget proposal totaling N27.5 trillion.

He also denied rumors that the President had presented a N25 trillion budget estimate, a move that the President has since clarified.