TheCable

Diket Plang, senator representing Plateau central, says the national assembly did not pad the 2024 budget.

Abdul Ningi, now suspended senator representing Bauchi central, stirred controversy when he alleged that the budget was padded by N3 trillion.

Subsequently, Ningi was suspended for a period of three months over the claim.

Speaking with reporters on Monday, Plang, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the national assembly added about N1.5 trillion to the budget, bringing the total sum to N28.77 trillion, up from N27 trillion.

The senator said the addition to the budget was at the behest of the executive.

“On the request by the executive, we added the said sum because of critical issues such as food security,” he said.

“Hunger had come in as a result of fuel subsidy removal and devaluation of the naira and there was a need for some measures.

“They were not in the initial budget. There was an urgent need to provide additional money for the security agencies to enable them to purchase weapons.

“There are classified expenditures like those for the security agencies that are not captured in the printed budget.”

The legislator said the national assembly is privileged to be working with President Bola Tinubu who knows the workings of parliament as a former senator.

“There is a cordial working relationship between the two arms of government because the executive understands lawmaking and knows what the national assembly wants,” he said.