The Senate has disagreed with President Muhammadu Buhari on the approval of issuance of Promissory Notes for Taraba and Delta States.
It was reacting to a letter by President Buhari where he accused the National Assembly of padding the debt figures to be reimbursed to the two states by the Federal Government while leaving out Bauchi and Kogi States.
The President had in his letter to the National Assembly dated March 5, 2019 stated that “While the Federal Executive Council approved a total sum of N78.6billion as reimbursement to Delta and Taraba State Governments, the National Assembly approved N90,2billion which is higher than the amount approved by the Federal Executive Council”.
But in a statement on Wednesday, Senate President, Bukola Saraki noted that the letter by President Buhari in which he claimed that National Assembly’s approval for refunds to Delta and Taraba State Governments through the issuance of Promissory Notes, for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government was different from what the Federal Executive Council approved and the reports in the media over the issue were wrong and must have resulted from misinformation to the President by his aides.
The statement signed by Yusuph Olaniyonu, Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Senate President, explained that the Senate approved the exact figures for Taraba and Delta States that was submitted to it by the Executive through the Ministry of Finance as stated on page 402 of a document titled ‘Federal Ministry of Finance Submission of Federal Government of Nigeria Outstanding Liabilities to National Assembly, May, 2018’.
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“The Senate would like to clarify that the breakdown which the Executive through the Ministry of Finance submitted to the National Assembly showed that the outstanding liability due to Taraba State is N22, 254,062,330.08 while that of Delta is N67, 982, 398, 701. 28 while the total for the two states is N90, 236, 461, 031. 36.
“Therefore, the National Assembly approved the figures submitted to it by the Ministry of Finance as approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government. At no time did the executive forwarded the figure of N78, 601, 631, 430, 16 to us and we do not know where the President got that figure from.
“We have decided to make this clarification in order to set the records straight and disabuse the minds of the general public. We believe the President must have been misinformed and misadvised by his aides while writing the letter he sent on this issue to the National Assembly”, the Senate stated.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
