Ningi: I was misquoted on 2024 budget padding; ready for suspension 

Senator Abdul Ningi, who represents Bauchi Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, has made a U-turn regarding some claims he made regarding the 2024 Appropriation Act.

In a chat with Senate correspondents on Monday, the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum, clarified that he never suggested that President Bola Tinubu is implementing two budgets or that he was biased against the North.

He clarified that he stands by his utterance as a Senator and not the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum, that it has been established beyond doubt that N25trn was rightly allocated in the budget, citing three parameters (money, project and location) but cannot ascertain the project location for the other N3trn.

Meanwhile, a lawmaker from Ondo South Senatorial District, Jimoh Ibrahim, has asked the Federal Government to charge Senator Ningi to court for criminal misinformation and breach of peace in the National Assembly and the country by extension.

The Presidency had on Sunday described as false, a claim by Senator Ningi that the Federal Government is operating two versions of the 2024 budget.

According to a statement by a Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the senator’s claim that the National Assembly passed N25 trillion as the 2024 Budget is false, adding that N28.7 trillion was passed and signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.

The Presidency also described as “far-fetched and unbecoming of a leader of his status”, the claim by Senator Ningi, who represents Bauchi Central Senatorial District, that the 2024 Budget was anti-north.

Onanuga said the President is leading a government that is fair and equitable to every part and segment of Nigeria. He added that in terms of funding, distribution of capital and priority projects, the 2024 Appropriation Act was not skewed against any section of the country.