A Bauchi senator had blown the whistle on an alleged padding of the 2024 budget to the tune of ₦3trn.
The Presidency has reacted to the allegation that the 2024 budget was inflated by ₦3trn, clarifying that the National Assembly only added ₦1.27tn to the executive proposal.
The reaction followed the issue of budget padding raised by a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi.
Ningi was quoted in a BBC Hausa report on Saturday, March 9, 2024, to have claimed that the Federal Government was operating an N28trn budget, different from the N25trn approved by lawmakers.
“Apart from what the National Assembly did on the floor, there was another budget that was done underground, which we didn’t know.
“The new things we have discovered in the budget were not known to us. We haven’t seen them in the budget that was debated and considered on the floor of the National Assembly," the senator alleged.
But, the Presidency, in a statement on Saturday night, said the National Assembly added ₦1.27tn to the 2024 budget, stressing that it does “not see where the ₦3tn is coming from.
“What we know is that the NASS approved a budget of N28tn which the President signed. What the President signed was the budget approved by the National Assembly, by the two houses.
“The 2023 supplementary budget was passed separately to run concurrently with this year’s budget until March,” Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, stated.
