Supplemental budget wasn’t padded – Senate

The 10th Senate dismissed as malicious rumours that it had bloated the supplemental budget that became law just last week.

Some online news sources had reported that the sum of N70 billion had been inflated into the supplementary budget as a “gift” from the executive branch of government, and the upper legislative house was reacting to this.

Senator Yemi Adaramodu, chairman of the Senate committee on media and public affairs, released a statement to reporters in Abuja on Sunday in which he questioned the source of such rumours and asserted that lawmakers did not require any sort of bribe from the executive branch in order to carry out their constitutional duties as lawmakers.

The statement claimed that the Federal Government’s Palliative for the Nigerian public was among the National demands that prompted the approval of the Supplementary Appropriations Act.

Let it suffice to remark that this passage is required of the Senate by law.

That’s why, as the statement puts it, “we would not wish to join issues with the mischief and misrepresentation that a portion of the just passed Amendment Act that appropriated N70 billion was a ‘gift’ to the Legislators.”

A tour to the National Assembly facility, Senator Adaramodu emphasised, “would reveal a yearning and the need for exigent attention.” A lot of senators had to lug in their own furniture and electronics and fix various things before they could get to work.

No lawmaker will receive the much-debated allocation. The National Assembly Bureaucracy will be in charge of handling this. The National Assembly facility is home to more than just legislators; this fact should not be overlooked. Thousands of employees and service providers have workplaces that are in dire need of upkeep and/or new equipment.

Legislators are not the sole owners of the Assembly Complex; therefore, such an allotment cannot be considered a consolation for them.

Those who are determined to damage the reputation of the 10th Congress invent stories about the supposed padding of the palliative budget by the national assembly. Some uninformed media outlets have falsely claimed that padding exists.

We want to encourage our countrymen to think of the members of the National Assembly as collaborators in Nigeria’s development.