Thirty-four ranking Senators of the 10th National Assembly each got N500 million for their constituency projects in the 2024 budget passed by the National Assembly.
A Senator is considered ranking Senator, according to Senate rules, after spending at least a term in the House of Representatives or Senate.
Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe (Cross River, PDP,) revealed this in the plenary on Tuesday, maintaining that senior senators got N500m each.
The revelation at the plenary on Tuesday means that the 34 senior senators who got N500 million each must have guzzled a total of N17billion as their constituency projects votes.
Jarigbe’s revelation ignited a rowdy session at the plenary with some senators denying collecting the amount.
Jarigbe later clarified, in an interview on Arise TV that the money was for constituency projects, not for personal palliatives of the Senators.
On Tuesday, Jarigbe said issues about the missing N3.7tn as alleged by Ningi had been clarified under the Government Owned Enterprises and the first line charge.
He said, “I thought this issue should have ended when the chairman of the Committee on Appropriation explained that the N3.7tn was under GOEs and the first line charge.
“That explains everything. We are going back and forth on this issue and coming up with the issue of budget and individual issues concerning what comes into our various constituencies.
“If we want to go into those issues, all of us are culpable. Some senators here—the so-called senior senators—got N500m each. I am a ranking senator, but I didn’t get it. Did I go to the press? Most of you here got it.
Jarigbe said, “This is an important clarification. I was speaking when the microphone went off. I was told by Ningi that some ranking senators got N500m. Ningi came to me and said that there were discrepancies in the budget and I told him that let’s go to the Senate President.
He explained further, “Senator Yayi (Adeola) has cleared the air on the N3tn, so there is no padding anywhere. Senator Ningi told me that he got N500m worth of projects in the budget. I said Senator Ningi shouldn’t be the one speaking about certain things.’’
But Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti, APC), said though the senators got N500m, it was for constituency projects.
“I was going through online and it’s trending that every senator got N500m here today and I am not going to deny anything. My appeal to Nigerians today is not about what was said here today because I am not going to deny that.
“But we have 12 months to implement this budget and see whether any of these senators here will not implement boreholes, enough solar street lights, road construction, training, and empowerment that will not be up to N500 million.”