Senator representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe, has said contrary to the claim that some ranking senators received N500 million from the 2024 budget, he had only received N266 million.
A federal lawmaker representing Cross River North, Senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe, had during plenary, on Tuesday, said that some senior senators had received N500 million each from the 2024 budget.
The revelation came on the heel of an ongoing controversy over an allegation of budget padding made by Senator Abdul Ningi in an interview with BBC Hausa.
Ningi had earlier accused the Senate of padding the 2024 budget, saying the National Assembly added an extra N3.7 trillion to the initial budget.
Reacting to the development, during a chat with ARISE TV, Senator Abaribe said Ningi knew it was a mistake claiming what he could not prove, because he was not a new member in the Senate.
Abaribe added that despite him, himself, being a senior senator, he had not received the N500 million alleged by Jarigbe.