By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Communications, Honourable Saheed Fijabi on has insisted that there was nothing like padding of the 2016 budget as alleged by the former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon Abdulmumini Jibrin.
Honourable Fijabi who said this in Ibadan while featuring on Splash FM (a private radio station) interview programme Oro Sunukun described Hon Jibrin as a joker with his allegation of budget padding.
The Lawmaker who is representing Ibadan South West and North West Federal constituency, declared that Honourable Jibrin ought to be apologising to Nigerians and the House of Representative instead of now raising the budget padding allegation.
He emphasized that there was nothing wrong in the reduction and resizing of some of the funds allocated in the budget as it was part of the duties of the lawmakers to monitor the Federal government expenses.
According to Honourable Fijabi, the 2016 budget which President Muhammadu Buhari refused to sign early this year was the one appropriated by the Hon Jibrin led committee and that it was after the budget proposal was worked upon by the Deputy Speaker led team that President Buhari agreed to sign it.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Communications while faulting the claims by Honourable Jibrin concerning the 2016 budget, maintained that the rejection of the budget by President Buhari was enough to remove Honourable Jibrin as Appropriation Committee Chairman.
Honourable Fijabi pointed out that contrary to the notion by some Nigerians, no extra money was added to the budget or removed from it but that the same amount sent to the National Assembly by the President was approved by the lawmakers.
The lawmaker stressed that there was nothing to fear by the House leadership concerning Hon Jibrin’s petition to the EFCC and the ICPC on the alleged padding of the budget.
