‘Fear God if not suspension’: Senator slams colleague over alleged budget padding

A member of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF) and Chairman of the Senate Services Committee, Sunday Karimi, has lashed out at the senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi, over claims that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is operating two versions of the 2024 budget.

Ningi had said there was another budget different from what was passed on the floor of the National Assembly.

The senator alleged that the 2024 budget passed by the National Assembly was inflated, saying what was passed by the lawmakers was N25 trillion and not N28 trillion.

Speaking on the allegation at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, March 11, 2024, Karimi said: “I advise Senator Ningi to at least fear God if he is not afraid of suspension.

“He spoke for the Northern Senators Forum (NSF) and not for himself even though nobody authorized him in the NSF to lie against the Senate.”

He stressed that Senator Ningi was “up to mischief because when they met Senate President, Akpabio requested that they should bring the report so that he would set up a committee to find out if there was anything like that.”

Presidency chides senator, denies operating padded budget

The lawmaker added: “We went to the Senate President as members of the NSF, but since he is on a mission of self-destruct, Senator Ningi decided to go to the media instead of bringing the report to the Senate President to set up a committee to authenticate the veracity of the claims.

“As a former principal officer both in the Senate and the House of Representatives, is Senator Ningi saying he is ignorant of the fact that arrangement of items on the first line charges are not usually lumped together with general items in the budget?

“I must say that Senator Ningi is just trying to engage in red-herring and sow the seed of institutional anarchy. As a ranking lawmaker, he should know that organisation of first-line charge items is not lined up on the budget.

“A new legislator could have been forgiven for this invidious tar-brushing but a ranking senator cannot claim ignorance of the organization of budget items.”

Senator Karimi further challenged Ningi to disclose the source of the N30 million allegedly paid to a consultant for the “shoddy job for him”.

He said: “No Northern senator contributed any money to pay any consultant; so where did Senator Ningi get the N30 million he paid the consultant?

“Senator Ningi should tell Nigerians the source of the N30m he paid to the consultants who have not even delivered on his consultancy since he is talking about transparency.”

The Star