A civil society organization, the Coalition for Parliamentary Democracy (CPD), has demanded that the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, should step down for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his alleged padding of the 2024 Appropriation Act to the tune of N3 trillion.
The media space had been awash over the allegation of budget padding by the Akpabio leadership in the Senate, a situation alleged to have jerked the sum total of the budget passed and approved on the floors of the National Assembly from N25 trillion to N28 trillion.
Senator Abdul Ningi, the Chairman of Northern Senators Forum and Chairman, Senate Committee on National Population, who made the revelation of budget padding while speaking on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interview at the weekend, alleged that the 2024 Appropriation Act being implemented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is at variance with the budget passed, approved and presented to the President by the National Assembly for his assent.
The CPD, which expressed shock over the revelation, is demanding that Akpabio should step aside as the Senate President and allow for an independent investigation by an adhoc committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the alleged N3 trillion budget fraud.
The group insists that it amounts to a gross misconduct and punishable violation of rules for any individual or group, or any arm of government to import fresh figures into an Appropriation Act after it has been assented to by the President except through an amendment introduced by way of a supplementary proposal.
The group noted that it is offensive and unpardonable for the Senate President to nicodemously submit another Appropriation proposal to the President outside what was officially passed by the Parliament.
“It is imperative that the Senate President immediately step aside until he is cleared of this very weighty allegation,” the group insisted.