Budget Padding: How senators share Zonal Intervention Project funds – Abaribe

The Lawmaker representing the Abia South Senatorial District, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has clarified the discrepancies in the sharing of the Zonal Intervention Project fund.

The Senator representing the Cross River North, Agom Jarigbe on Tuesday alleged that ranking senators got N500 million while he got nothing.

Jarigbe made the assertion at the floor of the Senate while commenting on allegation of budget padding raised by the lawmaker representing Bauchi Central, Senator Abdul Ningi.

Ranking senators refers to lawmakers who have spent at least four years in the Red Chamber.

However, speaking on Arise TV on Wednesday, Abaribe denied receiving N500 million as alleged by his colleague.

He, however, said he got N266 million from the money allocated to members of the National Assembly in the six geo-political zones.

Abaribe explained that lawmakers from some zones like the Northwest, which has seven states, would expectedly get less than what he got, as his Southeast zone has only five states.

He said, “I have been saying that all fingers are not equal and by privilege of office, certain people will get but not every Senator gets an equal amount.

“These are six zones in the country and every zone gets its own N10 billion intervention. Now, if you are from the Northwest zone, because you have seven states, the senator will get less than me who comes from the five states zone.

“My state, Abia, gets N2 billion and if we break it down for both the Senate and the representatives, the Senate is getting 40% and the House gets 60%.

“I got about N266 million as zonal intervention. The person in the Northwest who has seven states, will necessarily get less, about a hundred million and something.

“So it’s not correct when we say every constituency must get an equal amount.”