Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber yesterday denied inflating figures in the Promissory Notes request sent to it by the Executive.
The Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, explained in statement that the Senate said it has noted that the letter by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate, in which he claimed that National Assembly’s approval for refunds to Delta and Taraba states through the issuance of Promissory Notes for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government, was different from what the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved, and that the reports in the media over the issue, were wrong and must have resulted from misinformation to the President by his aides.
The Senate said it approved the exact figures for Taraba and Delta states submitted to it by the executive, through the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) 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.”
The President had claimed in his letter to the National Assembly dated March 5, 2019 that, “while the Federal Executive Council approved a total sum of N78,601,631,430.16 as reimbursement to Delta and Taraba State governments, the National Assembly approved N90,236,461,031.36, which was higher than the amount approved by the Federal Executive Council.
“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 with the total for the two states at 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 forward 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.