Former Speaker,
House of Representatives, Mr Ghali Na’Abba, has called for proper investigation
of the role played by officials in the executive arm in the current budget
padding controversy.
Na’Abba made the
call while answering questions from Energy Correspondents, at a workshop
organised by Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) in Kano. He said
it was impossible for the budget to be padded without the connivance of
government officials.
“This stealing of funds cannot be possible without active
connivance with some members of the executive arm,“ he said. On calls for the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to resign, Na’Abba said
that the call was “unwarranted” as there was no formal indictment of the
speaker.
“According to my understanding, where the issue being referred to as
padding comes into play, is a situation where some members go behind and add
items of expenditure to what has already been agreed upon. “For either stealing
the funds or doing whatever they feel like doing with it. “So far, accusations
are being traded amongst members of the house, but no investigation has been
conducted.
“On the call for the resignation of the Speaker, the question is,
what has the Speaker done to warrant his resignation?“ He called for full
investigation to ascertain the level of involvement of members of the House
mentioned in the allegation before calling on anyone to resign. “I expect that
for 16 years of return to democracy, Nigerians would have understood the
responsibilities of the National Assembly.
“For some weeks now, there has been
controversy over what is called padding. “As far as I am concerned, the
National Assembly has the responsibility to pass the budget, approve it and
allow the executive arm to execute it.”
On whether padding constituted an
offence, Na’Abba said, “It all depends on what angle you look at it, I just
told you that the responsibility of appropriation belongs to the national
assembly.
“If padding is seen as an offence, then it is when some members of
the national assembly decide to add items of expenditure through the back door
after the bill has been passed by the two legislative arms.
“It therefore
behoves on Nigerians to decide who represent them in the national assembly.’’`
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 30 selected Journalists from the
Kaduna Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) attended the three-day
workshop, designed sharpen their skills in reporting the Oil and Gas
sector.
(NAN)
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