Budget Padding: I Don’t Know How Much You Earn, How Many Aides You Have – Ningi Fires Akpabio

The lawmaker representing Bauchi Central in the National Assembly, Senator Abdul Ningi on Tuesday said he doesn’t know how much Senate President Godswill Akpabio and other principal officers earn.

He said though the earnings and other entitlements of the principal officers appear wrapped in secrecy, Akpabio knows how much he (Ningi) earns.

Ningi made his point known while defending his N3.7 trillion budget padding allegation on the floor of the Senate.

The lawmaker stressed that he doesn’t know Akpabio’s take-home pay, his cars, the number of legislative aides, or other entitlements. He lamented that he didn’t get any car from the allocation made for the purchase of cars for members of the 10th National Assembly.

He added that according to the document on the 2024 budget available to him, some senatorial districts received as much as N120 billion, while his own constituency received just N1.2 Billion.

He said: “We discovered, some senatorial districts in this documents have up to N120 billion and my senatorial district has just N1.2 billion.

“Mr President in this budget presented to you, I have facts, constituency by constituency. Some N120 billion, some N50 billion; some N30 billion. Some have less than N1 billion.

“Mr President as I speak to you, I don’t know your take-home pay, you know my own. I don’t know the take-home pay of any of the other principal officers.

“My President, I know within budgetary provisions, you made available funds for purchase of cars. Mr President, I don’t know how much you made for your cars and principals officers. I know how much was made for individual senator’s cars.

“As I speak to you, people are calling me names, I didn’t receive a single car.

“All within the budget provisions, Mr President, I have as a matter of fact, five aides just like other senators but I don’t know how many aides you have or the how many the Deputy Senate President has.”