The House of Representatives has denied accessing 50 percent of the N100 billion allocated to zonal intervention projects in the 2018 budget.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, had disclosed on Tuesday that 50 percent of the allocation had been released.
But spokesman of the House, Abdulrazak Namdas, while briefing reporters after the 2019 budget presentation by President Muhammadu Buhari, dismissed the claim, saying no such money has been released for the projects.
Accordi8ng to him, no contractor has informed the House that they have accessed the money. “None of us has accessed to that fund, and I’m just always aware that these funds are released to contractors who would go and do the projects in our various constituencies.
“So in the meantime, none of our contractors or the contractors that are supposed to be given has called to say they are on the site doing the job, but there is a commitment on the part of the executive that 50 percent will be released.
“So I think we just need to make that little clarification because if you say it’s an allowance, people feel that we are pocketing the money that has already been given to us.
“And I think this is not true and I think we still have not been given our constituency allowance.”
On the reaction of lawmakers to President Buhari’s budget presentation, Namdas said it should not be blown out of proportion, adding that it is the beauty of democracy.
He said: “What happened on the floor of the house is democracy in action.
“There is nothing abnormal about it because you can see members of the ruling party were hailing the president, the opposition was also not doing the same and everybody have the right to do what they want to do.
“Freedom of speech and what you say and we cannot bar people from doing anything but at the end of the day the budget has been presented by the President.”