President Bola Tinubu Tuesday night met with Senate representatives led by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, at the State House.
The meeting is coming shortly after the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi of Bauchi Central (PDP), who recently alleged that the 2024 budget had been padded up to the tune of ₦3 trillion.
Ningi alleged that there are two budgets in circulation and that the one currently being implemented is not the one passed by the National Assembly.
Ningi who chairs the Northern Senators’ Forum and Senate Committee on Population, alleged in a BBC Hausa Service interview that the Federal Government, led by President Tinubu, was executing a budget significantly higher than what was passed by the NASS.
Ningi, who is the chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, had alleged that the 2024 budget was padded with N3 trillion, adding that “huge damage” has been done to the north and the entire country in the budget.
According to him, the N25 trillion budget was debated and passed, not the N28.7 trillion that is currently being implemented.
He had said: “We have engaged consultants to review the budget for us. We have some experts that are working on it line by line.
“We have seen the huge damage that was done not only to the north but to the entire country in that budget. We are supposed to sit with the Senate president to inform him about what we have observed,” he said.
In a statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency has described Ningi’s claims as false, insisting that Tinubu never presented a budget of N25 trillion on November 29, 2023, but N27.5 trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly, made up of N9.92 trillion in recurrent expenditure, N8.25 trillion in debt service, and N8.7 trillion in capital expenditure.
He described Ningi’s view as strange, stating that there was no way the Senate could have debated and passed a N25 trillion budget that was not presented to the National Assembly.
He had advised the ranking senator to pay due attention to details before making wild claims.
On Monday, Ningi maintained his position that N3.7 trillion could not be accounted for in the 2024 budget.
At plenary on Tuesday, the Senate suspended Ningi for three months over this claim.
While the parties called for a probe into the allegation, some northern senators disowned Ningi’s claims, saying the Bauchi State senator did not speak for them.