Padding: Presidency says NASS added N1.27tn to 2024 budget

The Senate has stated that there was no padding in the N28.77 trillion passed by both the joint chambers of the National Assembly.

The Senate made this known through its spokesperson, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, on Saturday evening while reacting to the issue of budget padding raised by the Senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District (from the Peoples Democratic Party), Abdul Ningi.

However, the Presidency, in a statement issued on Saturday, clarified that the National Assembly added N1.27tn to the 2024 budget, but it does “not see where the N3tn is coming from.”

Adaramodu, in a chat with our correspondent, noted that the budget was a public document and was in the public space for Nigerians to peruse.

The BBC Hausa service on Saturday had, in a report, quoted Senator Ningi, the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, as alleging that the Federal Government was operating an N28tn budget, contrary to the N25tn passed by the National Assembly.

Senator Ningi had said in the report, “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. Punch