N500m ‘Largesse’: I Received N266m, Senator Confesses

• Senator Abaribe clarifies receiving N266 million, not alleged N500 million, from 2024 budget amidst largesse distribution claims among senators
• Controversy sparked by Senator Agom-Jarigbe’s statement alleging senior senators received N500 million from 2024 budget, amid budget padding accusations

Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe, representing Abia South, has clarified that he received N266 million, not the alleged N500 million, from the 2024 budget, amidst claims of largesse distribution among ranking senators.

The controversy emerged when Senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe, representing Cross River North, stated during a plenary session that certain senior senators had each received N500 million from the 2024 budget.

This revelation unfolded amidst an ongoing dispute over budget padding allegations made by Senator Abdul Ningi in an interview with BBC Hausa. Ningi had accused the Senate of padding the 2024 budget with an additional N3.7 trillion.

Senator Abaribe, speaking in an interview with ARISE TV, criticized Ningi’s assertion, highlighting Ningi’s tenure and experience in the Senate. Abaribe, despite being a senior senator himself, denied receiving the alleged N500 million.

He said, “Senator Ningi knew it was going to be a mistake. He knew. He’s a member of the Senate. He can’t say he didn’t know. He’s an old Senator. He has been in the Senate before. He knew that this wasn’t correct. “I never got 500 million. I think Jarigbe tried to clarify his statement. He came back subsequently to say, ‘No, Ningi told me I was given’, because he didn’t get.

He’s also a ranking Senator. “So, I think that at the end of the day, what you see really is that…well, I’m an APGA Senator–the only APGA Senator in the Senate. Maybe being a minority of the minority, they didn’t consider me worthy of being given. Nobody told me about that money.

“I wanted to say that, without equivocation, that both Jarigbe and the Senate leader tried to clarify this issue. Number one: nobody was given 500 million. Even a few of my colleagues called me to say, ‘Ahh you get 500 million we dey beg you for money but you no wan give us one naira out of it.’ “Can you imagine? So, of course I got 266 million for what’s called Zonal Intervention Fund which Nigerians call “constituency project” funds.

And this thing takes a budget circle which is twelve months. So if at the end of twelve months you don’t see what’s in the budget for your constituency, then you hold your representatives whether in the Reps or Senate culpable.”