Budget Padding: Abaribe reveals how much each Senator received

The differences in the sharing of the Zonal Intervention Project funds have been explained by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the lawmaker representing the Abia South Senatorial District.

ZINGTIE recalls that on Tuesday, Senator Agom Jarigbe, representing Cross River North, alleged that ranking senators received N500 million while he received nothing.

When Senator Abdul Ningi, a member representing Bauchi Central, brought up the allegation of budget padding men, Jarigbe made the claim on the Senate floor.

Those lawmakers who have been in the Red Chamber for at least four years are called ranking senators.

However, Abaribe denied getting N500 million, as alleged by his colleague in an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday morning.

Nonetheless, he claimed to have received N266 million from the funds given to National Assembly members in each of the six geopolitical zones.

Abaribe clarified that because his Southeast zone only consists of five states, lawmakers from certain zones, such as the Northwest, which includes seven states, would naturally receive less than he did.

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.”

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