The Senate Leader of the 10th National Assembly, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, at the Senate plenary on Tuesday, declined to deny the N500 million received by senior senators in the passage of the controversial padded 2024 budget revealed by suspended Senator Abdul Ningi.
The Senate Leader rather appealed to Nigerians to wait and see what the senators [who received the N500 million] would do with the money, citing constituency projects.
According to Bamidele Opeyemi, “I am going through the online… just as it is trending now that every senator got N500 million.
“My appeal to Nigerians, is not about what was said here today, because I am not going to deny that.
“But we have 12 months to implement 2024 budget, let every Nigerian wait to see whether there is any of these senators who will not bring enough boreholes, enough federal street lights, enough road construction, and other projects, training and empowerment, that will be up to N500 million. That is it….”
The Senate Leader arguing strongly for the suspension of Senator Ningi, also declared: “I beg all of you, we must do the right thing today.
“We did not start this fight, Senator Ningi took this to the public domain; standing up here to apologise, even after he repeated that some people got N500 million for this budget… Ha ba! What apology are you expecting?
“Let us do the right thing, and I am saying it as part of the leadership of the Senate, I am not bothered…”
Meanwhile, Senator Abdul Ningi was, thereafter, suspended by the Senate for three months for the over N3 trillion 2024 budget padding whistle blowing.
Listen to the video of his speech below.