The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has berated the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, over his comments on the alleged 2024 budget padding.
Recall that Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central in the National Assembly, had alleged that the National Assembly debated and passed N25 trillion as the 2024 budget instead of the N28.7 trillion being implemented by the Federal Government.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senator, in an interview with BBC Hausa last Friday, said the Northern lawmakers sought the service of a private auditor and discovered irregularities in the budget.
Reacting to the development in an X post on Sunday, Obi called on the Presidency and the National Assembly to explain the discrepancies of budget padding to the sum of N3 trillion.
The former Governor of Anambra said the allegation is worrying because the amount involved represents over 10% of the national budget.
However, in a post via his official X handle on Monday, Onanuga said the 2024 budget was not padded, as Senator Ningi claimed.
The presidential spokesman advised Obi to always verify any matter in public space before always expressing his views.
He wrote: “There was no padding. My advice: don’t always jump into a matter in public space without first of all confirming its authenticity.”
