The Senate during the emergency plenary session, Thursday, approved extension of the implementation period for capital component of N21.83 trillion 2023 budget and N2.17trlion 2023 supplementary budget from June 30, 2024 to December 31, 2024.
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio’s used the occasion to restate his earlier rebuttal on alleged comments purportedly made by him on approval of purchase of new presidential aircrafts, after the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele drew the attention of the Senate to the insinuation.
He said: “The Senate Leader, it is not good for us to run the Senate by answering people in the social media because the social media is garbage in garbage out.
“I was in Zanzibar attending to inter parliamentary union meetings when that information went out that the Senate President said he would approve a brand new plane for the president, irrespective of whether Nigerians are suffering or not.
“There was never a time such a statement came from me because I’ve never had any correspondence to approve a plane or not approve a plane and I did not want to answer, but they went to generate it and then they went around as if I was saying that I did not care about the Nigerian people. I did not do this.
“We care about the president. We care about the Nigerian people. We will approve things that will benefit the Nigerian people. We will approve things that would improve the living standard of the people.
“At the same time, we will also take cognisance of the duties of Mr President. If his vehicle is bad, we will repair the vehicle. If his plane is bad, we will approve money for the repair of the plane or the purchase of a new one.”
Reps too
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives, Thursday, also approved extension of implementation of the capital projects component of the 2023 budget, but the approval was not without initial dissenting voices of some lawmakers.
The bill was read for the first and second time after the Speaker ,Tajudeen Abbas read President Bola Tinubu’s letter seeking the extension was presented by the House Leader, Julius Inhonvbere, but some members disagreed with the request.
Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda, argued against the bill, saying that extension of the implementation of capital projects will negatively affect the people.
“A situation where we may have four budgets running concurrently is a bit of a problem. I will suggest that the House leader (Ihonvbere) step this bill down. Meanwhile, the projects that were not completed in the 2023 budgets can be transferred to 2024 supplementary budget,” he said.
Also speaking, Alhassan Ado Doguwa agreed with the Chinda, saying, “At this critical moment we must unit, when we have a budget that is been extended all the shows that the government is not doing something right.”
