The Senate has accused Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN) of trying to incite the public against the National Assembly by urging them to hold the federal lawmakers responsible for poor federal roads in Benue State.
The Senate declared the comment credited to the minister as “fallacy of the highest order”.
Spokesperson of the Senate, Dr. Ajibola Basiru stated this in a Sunday statement titled, ‘Senate debunks minister’s claim on budgetary allocations to road construction’.
Fashola was said to have made the comment while playing host to retired Generals and other leaders of thought from Benue South Senatorial District led by Air Vice Marshal Morgan Monday.
The Benue South leaders had visited Fashola in his office in Abuja to complain about the poor state of the federal roads in their senatorial zone.
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Reacting to the claim, the Senate spokesperson said, “The records need to be set right so that the two arms of government should not be seen as working at cross purposes in the course of delivering dividends and good governance to the electorate.
“Putting the records straight, the Senate gave the figure of the 2020 proposal for capital expenditure as N265,868, 037,093 by the Executive, which the National Assembly passed.
“The Executive later brought revised allocation of N256,734,983,667, which we also appropriated.
“As we talk, even in the budget proposal for 2021, the Executive proposed a capital expenditure of N363,266,425,976.
“The Senate then wondered where the minister got his figure of N600bn, which he said was the figure proposed to the National Assembly by his ministry and which was allegedly not supported or approved by the National Assembly.
“The Senate, therefore, invites Nigerians and specifically the minister’s guests from the Benue State South Senatorial District to note that figures do not lie.”
Basiru listed three road projects that are ongoing in Benue South as the Oju-Adum Okuku Road at N91,180, 000, Oturkpo Township Road at N357,200,000, and the Oju/Loko-Oweto Bridge at a cost of N357,200,000.