Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has said that the National Assembly was responsible for jerking up the 2024 budget.
Kalu made this known while speaking with newsmen shortly after a Thanksgiving ceremony organized by the Ebonyi State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Stanley Okoro Emegha, at Edda.
He said President Bola Tinubu should not be blamed for the development.
“I can tell you, it’s not the President that jerked up the budget to N28.2 trillion but the National Assembly, of which I’m a ranking member of the Appropriation Committee.
“We want to do census and government has spent billions of naira on it, and it was not captured in the budget.
“They brought new figures from the National Population Commission and other relevant bodies and that’s why the budget went up.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not know anything about it. We have been working on the budget and so, it wasn’t from the President. If it is the fault of the President, I will tell you that it is his fault. I have just given you one of the reasons why the budget was jerked up.
“The National Population commission, (NPC), has spent so much money on the census, and this census is supposed to be conducted soon but they lack money to do it, and if they don’t do it, Nigeria will be losing two hundred and eighty nine billion. So, we have to put that money in the budget,” Kalu said.