The Senator representing Cross River North, Jarigbe Jarigbe on Tuesday revealed that ranking senators got N500m each for their constituency projects in the 2024 budget passed by the National Assembly..
According to the Senate rules, any lawmaker who has spent at least a term in the House of Representatives or Senate, is considered a ranking senator.
On the list of senators in the 10th Senate, at least 34 of them are ranking. With Jarigbe’s revelation during plenary on Tuesday it means ranking members of the Red Chamber received a total of N17bn as their constituency projects votes.
Speaking during the rowdy session on the motion on breach of privilege moved by Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC Ogun West) against Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) over Ningi’s interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (Hausa Services), the lawmaker alleged that senior senators got N500m each.
He said, “I thought this issue should have ended when the chairman of the Committee on Appropriation explained that the N3.7tn was under GOEs and the first line charge.
“That explains everything.We are going back and forth on this issue and coming up with the issue of budget and individual issues concerning what comes into our various constituencies.
“If we want to go into those issues, all of us are culpable. Some senators here—the so-called senior senators—got N500m each. I am a ranking senator, but I didn’t get it. Did I go to the press? Most of you here got it.”
Ningi was suspended for three months on Tuesday. He also resigned as the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum
Jarigbe’s revelation led to a rowdy session at the plenary with some senators denying collecting the amount.
Jarigbe later clarified, in an interview on Arise TV that the money was for constituency projects, not for personal palliatives of the Senators.
Adeola had come under orders 9, 10, 41, and 51 to move a motion of privilege and issue of national importance against Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) over Ningi’s interview with the BBC (Hausa Services)
Ningi, in the BBC interview on Friday, alleged that N3.7tn was not tied to specific projects in the 2024 budget.
Also, at a press conference on Monday, the senator insisted on the allegation, adding that he was not afraid of suspension.
Contributing to the debate on Tuesday, Jarigbe said issues about the missing N3.7tn as alleged by Ningi had been clarified under the Government Owned Enterprises and the first line charge.
Be the first to comment