Obi to Senate: Ningi’s suspension hasn’t addressed vital issues in budget padding allegation

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, said the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi by the Senate has not addressed vital issues in the allegation of the lawmaker.

Obi stated this in a statement via his X handle on Wednesday.

According to him, the fuss over the alleged N3 trillion padded into the 2024 budget still rages as the Senate’s reaction of suspending the whistle-blower has not addressed vital issues emanating from the allegation.

He said, “The Senator is insisting on his allegation, and the Executive agreed that there was only N1.2 trillion padded, not N3 trillion as alleged by the Senator. Fresh allegations have also cropped up over the indiscriminate and unbalanced allocation of constituency projects by the Senate leadership.

“A civic society group, Budgit, through their officials, has also added their voice to agree with the Senator. They allege that there were no detailed project allocations for about N3.7 trillion in the 2024 Appropriation Act.

“As the Senate suspension of the senator involved has not addressed the issue, they still owe the Nigerian public a clear clarification over the various claims and counterclaims, including that of the executive arm, to be able to know exactly what is happening, and also disclose to the public, the exact amounts allocated for constituency projects for appropriate monitoring of implementation by the public.

“I had particularly elucidated in my earlier comment on what we can use the N3 trillion to achieve, by showing that it is more than the national budget of the two most critical components of the human development index, health and education, combined.”

Obi further stated, “Now that the executive arm has accepted that the padded amount is only N1.2 trillion, it is still a very significant amount, when you consider that it is almost 5 times the N251.47 billion proposed for Universal Basic Education, which is the foundation of education, in the country.

“Today in Nigeria, the greatest challenge to human resource development is education, which has been identified as most critical at the basic level.”

The Labour Party candidate said Nigeria has about 20 million out-of-school children today because of the poor investment in education, adding that these are resources that would have been utilised to ensure that our children are taken off the streets and returned to schools.

He said the N1.2 trillion, which the executive branch admitted to have been padded, if channeled into any of the critical areas of development, could have positively impacted the nation and uplifted the people.

Obi said, “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.

“We must, as a matter of urgency, put a stop to all the wastage of our scarce resources, amid the excruciating hardship in the country.

“Let every penny of our public funds be used for public good. That is the only way to achieve the new Nigeria we are working towards. – PO.”

Recall that the 2024 Budget has been a subject of controversy, with Ningi alleging that the Senate padded the 2024 budget to the tune of N3.7 trillion.

Ningi, in an interview with BBC Hausa, claimed that the Federal Government is operating two versions of the 2024 budget and that the N28.7 trillion Budget passed and signed into law by President Tinubu was skewed against the North.

At the resumed plenary on Tuesday, the Red Chamber, under the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, suspended Senator Ningi.

.His suspension hasty -Groups

Meanwhile, The Joint Action for Good Governance (JAGG) and the Centre for Human and Socio-economic Rights (CHSR) have faulted Senate’s suspension of Sen. Abdul Ningi over his allegation that the 2024 budget was padded.

The two groups told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos that the National Assembly should have thoroughly investigated the allegation before taking the action.

The National Vice President of JAGG, Mr. Abdulwaheed Odunuga told NAN that that since every Nigerian had freedom of expression, the Senate should have looked deeply into Ningi’s claim rather than “hastily suspending him.”

“To us, it is wrong for the Senate to suspend Ningi so hastily due to his claim that 2024 budget was padded. The hasty action of the Senate smacks of suspicion.

“We know the issue of budget padding has always been there. We are convinced budgets are padded at times.

“We have situations whereby allocations are made for a project without knowing specifically what the projects are and where such projects are executed.

“I totally disagree with the suspension, the Senate should have thoroughly looked at those allegations made and not be hasty in action,” Odunuga said.

According to him, the suspension would deny the lawmaker of the opportunity of representing his constituency.

He said: “the Senate should look at those areas mentioned by Ningi critically in the interest of the nation,’’ he said.

Also speaking, Mr. Alex Omotehinse, the National President of CHSR, said the “hasty suspension” of Ningi on mere allegations was wrong, saying they ought to have thoroughly investigated the claim.

Omotehinse said: “It is wrong for people to elect their representatives and the parliament will suspend such representative because of a particular rule or procedure.

“So, that constituency (Senatorial District) will have no representation for the period of suspension? It is undemocratic.

“The House can use other means for sanction but not suspension,” he said.

Omotehinse said that the senate should have rather deny Ningi of other rights and privileges, but not suspend him.

“For instance, if such a member is a principal officer, the position could be withdrawn, but not  to suspend the person for a whole period of three months.

“You can’t take the people’s mandate from him. The representative duty cannot be taken away from any members duly elected by the people,” he said.

NAN recalls that the Senate on Tuesday suspended Sen. Abdul Ningi (PDP-Bauchi) for three months from all activities of the Senate over his allegation that the 2024 budget was padded.

The Upper Chamber’s resolution was sequel to a motion by Sen. Solomon Adeola (APC-Ogun) during Tuesday’s plenary entitled: “Urgent Need to Address the False Allegations against the Senate and the Presidency on the 2024 Appropriation Act by Sen. Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central).”

An international media outfit had quoted Ningi as saying that President Bola Tinubu was operating two different budgets for 2024.