Budget padding controversy: Ranking senators get N17bn constituency votes, Ningi suspended

Fresh revelations at the Senate plenary, on Tuesday, indicated 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 the revelation at the plenary on Tuesday that  senior   senators got N500m each, the ranking senators,   must have got a total of  N17bn as their constituency projects votes.

Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe (PDP, Cross-River North), during the debate of 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), alleged  that senior senators got N500m each.

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.