2024 Budget Not Padded, Senate Passed N28trn – Jarigbe

Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe (Cross River North) has said there was no N3.7 trillion padded to the 2024 budget, even as the Senate cleared Senate President Godswill Akpabio of any wrongdoing.

Jarigbe who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas dismissed the reported N3.7trillion padding to the 2024 budget as false and urged lawmakers to always protect the sanctity of the institution of the Senate.

Senate at a plenary session in which members reacted to alleged N3.7trillion padding by Senator Abdul Ningi also insisted that it only passed N28trillion and not N3.7trillion as alleged by Ningi

But Jarigbe in a statement made available to journalists insisted there was no such padding, adding that senators were at peace with the explanation by the Senate Committee on Appropriation 

He said “There was no padding of the Budget with 3. 7 trillion, as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations clears the issue of Budget Padding.

 He advised Senators not to destroy the sanity and integrity of the Senate because most of the senior Senators got extra Projects in their Districts but some other Senators, like himself, did not get that incentive.