Three Senators on Sunday disagreed with Senator Abdul Ningi’s 2024 budget padding allegations.
The Senators, in a statement they jointly signed and made available to Senate Corps correspondents, are Steve Sunday Karimi, Titus Tartenger Zam and Kaka Sheu, describing the report that made headlines on Saturday as unfounded and baseless.
The lawmakers contended that the Senate, under the leadership of Godswill Akpabio, never padded any budget, insisting that the allegation could have been Ningi’s figment of imagination.
They warned against unguarded utterances that tend to blackmail the upper legislative Chamber of the National Assembly.
The statement, quoting the three Senators speaking on behalf of the Northern Senators’ Forum, noted that the 10th Senate shall not allow itself to be rocked with division and disunity.
They expressed that such utterances were capable of creating acrimony between the North and South, which is detrimental to national unity.
Senator Sunday Karimi from Kogi State, Titus Tartenger Zam from Benue, and Kaka Sheu from Borno State insisted that the Northern Senators Forum cannot be used to serve the interests of some elements to the detriment of national unity.
At a meeting last week, some northern senators accused the Senate President of inserting projects worth N4 trillion in the 2024 budget.
They wondered how Senator Ningi, representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, got his breakdown before arriving at the conclusion of N4 trillion padding.
However, shedding light on what transpired at the meeting, Karimi, Zam, and Sheu said it was only resolved that the report of the consultant engaged by the Northern Senators Forum be subjected to further scrutiny, as the entire appropriation process was a combination of work from the executive, actively represented by the Minister of Budget and National Planning and other ministers, the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, and the Senate Committees on Appropriation.
They queried: “The difference was N1.27 trillion, coming from all three arms of government. Where is the additional so-called padding of three trillion coming from? It was resolved that the Northern Senators’ consultant report be looked into by essential committees of the Senate and House of Representatives before jumping to a conclusion.”
Karimi, Zam, and Sheu urged the Northern Senators Caucus Leader, Abdul Ningi, to “rein in those who think a crisis-ridden Senate would better profit them.”