The lawmaker representing the Abia South Senatorial District, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said that contrary to the claim that some ranking senators received N500 million from the 2024 budget, he only received N266 million.
Recall that the senator representing Cross River North, Agom Jarigbe on Tuesday, March 12, revealed that senior ranking senators had received N500 million each from the 2024 budget while he got nothing.
Lawmakers who have spent at least four years in the Senate are regarded as ranking senators.
Jarigbe made the revelation on the floor of the Senate while speaking on allegations of budget padding raised by the lawmaker representing Bauchi Central, Senator Abdul Ningi.
Ningi had earlier alleged that the Senate of padding the 2024 budget, saying the National Assembly added an extra N3.7 trillion to the initial budget.
Reacting to the allegation on Arise Television on Wednesday, March 13, Abaribe said Ningi knew it was a mistake to make a claim he could not prove.
Abaribe then denied receiving N500 million as alleged by Jarigbe. He added that despite being a senior senator, he only received N266 million.
Abaribe said: “Senator Ningi knew it was going to be a mistake. He knew. He’s a member of the Senate. He can’t say he didn’t know. He’s an old Senator. He has been in the Senate before. He knew that this wasn’t correct.
“I never got 500 million. I think Jarigbe tried to clarify his statement. He came back subsequently to say, ‘No, Ningi told me I was given’, because he didn’t get. He’s also a ranking Senator.
“So, I think that at the end of the day, what you see really is that…well, I’m an APGA Senator–the only APGA Senator in the Senate. Maybe being a minority of the minority, they didn’t consider me worthy of being given. Nobody told me about that money.
“I wanted to say that, without equivocation, that both Jarigbe and the Senate leader tried to clarify this issue. Number one: nobody was given 500 million. Even a few of my colleagues called me to say, ‘Ahh you get 500 million and we dey beg.