The senators from the northern region have raised concerns that Mr. Akpabio and his associates have allegedly inserted self-enrichment projects totaling N4 trillion into the budget through illegitimate means.
The members of the 58-member Forum, under the guidance of their chairman Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi), engaged Mr. Akpabio in a discussion during a meeting on Thursday at his Guest House in the Maitama District of Abuja.
During his interview with the BBC Hausa Service, Mr. Ningi asserted that there were two separate federal budgets being implemented.
He said, “For the last three months, we have employed private financial auditors to extensively examine the 2024 budget. We have uncovered significant unauthorized changes and additions in the budget that would have a widespread negative impact on the nation as a whole.
“We are supposed to meet with the senate president and show him the irregularities we saw in the budget and let him know our concerns. we will not agree and support spending money on what we are not aware of. Because apart from the budget National Assembly passed, some people went behind our back and prepared another budget we are not aware of. There were inclusions we don’t know about, but our experts are still working on it.
“Example, we had a budget of N28 trillion but after our thorough checks we found out that it was a budget of N25 trillion. How and where did we get the additional N3 trillion from, what are we spending it for?
“And there are many other issues we have discovered. We are going to meet with the president and show him, we will ask him if he is aware of all these things that are happening. We will show him and ask him if he is aware of it, and what he intends to do to those who partake in the whole manipulations and inclusions.”
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