…Gives insight on sharing formula
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
As the dust raised by the revelation by Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, representing Cross River North, that some ranking senators received N500 million as constituency projects in the alleged padded 2024 budget is yet to settle, former Senate Minority Leader and Senator representing Abia South, Senator Enyinaya Abaribe, has said he only got N266 million for his district.
This is as the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Senator gave insights on the sharing formula of the zonal intervention fund.
He said that the fund was shared based on the six geo-political zones, adding that zones with less number of states got more funds that zones with greater number of states.
The former Deputy Governor who spoke on Wednesday while featuring on Arise Television, said each of the six geo-political zones got N10 billion from the fund.
“I have been saying that all fingers are not equal and by privilege of office, certain people will get but not every Senator gets an equal amount.
“There are six zones in the country, and every zone gets its own N10 billion in intervention. Now, if you are from the North-West zone, because you have seven states, the senator will get less than me who comes from the five-state zone.
“My state, Abia, gets N2 billion and if we break it down for both the Senate and the representatives, the Senate is getting 40% and the House gets 60%.
“I got about N266 million as zonal intervention. The person in the North-West who has seven states, will necessarily get less, about a hundred million and something.
“So it’s not correct when we say every constituency must get an equal amount.”
Recall that Senator Jarigbe claimed that ‘most senior senators’ received N500 million each during a debate over the controversial allegation by Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central, that the Presidency padded the budget with N3.7 trillion.
Senator Jarigbe later clarified that the money was not shared to the senators for their personal needs but for constituency projects captured in the budget.
Meanwhile, the Senate, Tuesday, suspended Ningi over his claims which it said were unfounded.
