There was a rowdy session in the senate on Tuesday when Jarigbe Jarigbe, a lawmaker, claimed that some “senior senators” got N500 million in the 2024 budget for constituency projects.
Jarigbe made the claim while contributing to the motion moved by Solomon Adeola, senator representing Ogun west, on the allegation of budget padding.
The Ogun west senator said his privilege was breached because he participated in the budgeting process.
During the weekend, Abdul Ningi, senator representing Bauchi central, stirred a controversy when he alleged that the 2024 budget was padded with the sum of N3 trillion by the senate.
Ningi said a “huge damage” has been done to the entire country through the budget.
The national assembly had passed a budget of N28.7 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year.
President Bola Tinubu had proposed N27.5 trillion, but the lawmakers jerked it up by N1.2 trillion.
During the debate on the allegation, Jarigbe, senator representing Cross River north, said the matter is a “misunderstanding of figures”.
The Cross River senator said there is no difference between the figures reeled out by Ademola, chair of the senate committee on appropriations, and the figure purported to have been padded.
The lawmaker alleged that all the senators are “culpable”, if they are to dive into the issue of the budget and constituency projects.
“We are going forth and back on these issues — the issue of the budget and individual issues concerning what came to our various constituencies,” Jarigbe said.
“If we want to go into those issues, all of us are culpable. Some senior senators got N500 million each. I’m a ranking senator; I did not get. Did I go to the press? Most of you got.”
While the Cross River senator was speaking, some senators were shouting “point of order”.
Suddenly, the microphone being used by Jarigbe appeared off while the senator was trying to make his point.
After some minutes of a rowdy session, the microphone came on and the senator tried to ask his colleagues to maintain decorum and that he still wanted to talk.
“Let us wash our dirty linen in public,” Jarigbe said during the rowdy session in the senate.
However, when given another chance to speak, he clarified that it was Ningi who told him that some senators got N500m.
Jarigbe said, “This is an important clarification. I was speaking when the microphone went off. I was told by Ningi that some ranking senators got N500m. Ningi came to me and said that there were discrepancies in the budget and I told him that let’s go to the Senate President.
He explained further, “Senator Yayi (Adeola) has cleared the air on the N3tn, so there is no padding anywhere. Senator Ningi told me that he got N500m worth of projects in the budget. I said Senator Ningi shouldn’t be the one speaking about certain things.’’
But Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), stated that though the senators got N500m, it was for constituency projects.
“I was going through online and it’s trending that every senator got N500m here today and I am not going to deny anything. My appeal to Nigerians today is not about what was said here today because I am not going to deny that.
“But we have 12 months to implement this budget and see whether any of these senators here will not implement boreholes, enough solar street lights, road construction, training, and empowerment that will not be up to N500m.”
Ningi was subsequently suspended for three months.
