TheCable

The senate committee on gas has asked President Bola Tinubu to send a supplementary budget to facilitate the procurement of compressed natural gas (CNG) buses for mass transit across the country.

The federal government agreed to earmark N100 billion for the buses in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between it and organised labour.

The MoU was put in place to avert an indefinite strike by labour.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had planned to embark on a strike to protest economic hardship and removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol.

In a statement on Tuesday, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, chair of the senate gas committee, said it would be illegal for the president to make the procurement of the CNG buses without recourse to the national assembly.

Jarigbe commended the president for the initiative to provide the CNG buses, adding that it would ameliorate the suffering of citizens.

“The law frowns at extra budgetary spending,” the chair said.

“It will be illegal to spend tax payers money without approval by the national assembly.”

The Cross River senator added that it would be appropriate for the federal government to raise the funds through a supplementary budget and not “ways and means”, a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) provision.