“Senate still owe Nigerians clarification”: Peter Obi reacts to suspension of Senator Ningi  

Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, has raised concerns about the purported addition of N3 trillion to the 2024 budget and Senator Abdul Ningi’s suspension.

Obi who described the matter as serious and urged the Senate to clarify publicly, emphasising that Ningi’s suspension does not address the underlying issue.

Ningi, who is from Bauchi Central, claimed that the National Assembly discussed and approved a budget of N25 trillion for 2024 instead of the N28.7 trillion currently enforced by the Federal Government f his administration to sustain current enforcement of procurement and other due process laws in the implementation of the state’s Multi-billion naira infrastructure agenda.

In an interview with BBC Hausa last Friday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator revealed that lawmakers from the North enlisted the help of an independent auditor and found discrepancies in the budget.

The Senator is insisting on his allegation and the Executive agreed that there was only N1.2trillion padded not N3trillion as alleged by the Senator.

“Fresh allegations have also cropped up over indiscriminate and unbalanced allocation of constituency projects by the Senate leadership.

“A civic society group, Budgit, through their official, have also added their voice to agree with the Senator. They allege that there was no detailed project allocations for about N3.7trn in the 2024 Appropriation Act.”

Obi highlighted that if Budgit’s reported claim of N3.7 trillion lacking specific project allocations is verified, those funds should be directed towards education, healthcare, and poverty reduction initiatives.

Obi wrote:wrote: “And if indeed the report from Budgit is true, that there is about N3.7 trillion without any detailed project allocations, I strongly urge the Senate to do more detailed work of channelling these funds into the critical areas of development – education, health and pulling people out of poverty, which will in turn, minimise the criminality we are facing today.