The Senator representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe, has denied receiving N500 million from the 2024 budget as claimed by Senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe during plenary on Tuesday. According to Senator Abaribe, he received only N266 million as part of the Zonal Intervention Fund, also known as “constituency project” funds, which is a budget allocation that runs for twelve months.
The controversy about the alleged budget padding was sparked by Senator Abdul Ningi’s accusation that the National Assembly added an extra N3.7 trillion to the initial budget. Reacting to this, Senator Abaribe dismissed the allegation as a mistake and pointed out that Senator Ningi, being an old member of the Senate, should have known better.
Regarding the claim that some senior Senators received N500 million from the budget, Senator Abaribe clarified that he was not among them. He said that even though he was a ranking Senator, he did not receive such an amount. He further added that some of his colleagues had even joked with him about the alleged windfall, but he had to set the record straight that he did not receive any money beyond his constituency project funds.
Senator Abaribe emphasized that it is the responsibility of Senators and Representatives to ensure that their constituencies benefit from the budget allocation and that they should be held accountable if they fail to deliver on their promises.