The Abia South Senatorial District, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has hinted why he kept quiet during the recent plenary of budget padding at the floor of the House.
Speaking with the Independent in an Interview, the former minority leader of the Senate said that the budget padding allegation should have been handled in such a way that would end it quickly but the will of the senate prevailed.
He said that one cannot be chasing rat while the house is on fire, adding that the country is passing through a lot in recent times.
He said that the budget padding allegation may not have gone that far after when an explanation was made to Ningi.
He explained, “Senator Ningi gave an interview and that interview was amplified in many ways that weren’t exactly what he intended. Senator Olamilekan on raising a point of order on the matter as chairman of the appropriation committee gave full details about whatever Ningi felt he didn’t have full details about and that is that there was about N3.7 trillion and when Olamilekan showed that this was for the statutory transfers to agencies of government that do not come inside the budget, which amounted to exactly that same amount. I felt personally that should have been where the matter ought to have ended and then we probably will caution Ninigi on the matter.”
He continued, “So, Ningi was given a chance to walk back from his assertion because he said that he was given a document which he commissioned by an outside consultant. Most likely the consultant didn’t have the full awareness of how detailed the budget is supposed to be. At that point, we tried to talk to Ningi to just apologize and leave the matter but maybe in trying to continue to insist on what he said, which has been proven to be incorrect, he went ahead to raise other issues and it is in all that whole thing that I will say reason now took flight. And you know once it comes to this kind of point, there will be emotions and so many things going in and out and of course, people will say things that they will later say they never meant what they said.”
“I would also say that Senator Ningi knew thatwas going to be a mistake. He is a member of the Senate and an old Senator because he had been in the Senate before and he knows that this wasn’t correct,” he added.
Abaribe said that during the heat of the plenary, he kept cool because “Nigeria is in trouble and we just had a recent case of mass kidnapping of children and they are in the bush and all manner of things are happening.
“So I felt that maybe this should have been handled in a manner that would have ended it very quickly and we can go on to other things. But the will of the senate prevailed and that is all I can say about that.”