Ned Nwoko, a lawmaker at the upper chamber representing Delta North has revealed that he received ₦1bn for constituency projects.
This was revealed on ‘Mic On Podcast’ with Channels Television’s Seun Okinbaloye.
The revelation was not unconnected with the disclosure that some “senior” senators got ₦500 million for projects by Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe, senator representing Cross River North.
Jarigbe said do during the Plenary which resulted in the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi over budget padding allegations.
“Of course I did. But these are projects for my people and that is why I am here,” said Nwoko when asked if he got as much as ₦1 billion in allocation.
However, he would have preferred that the constituency project allocation to every senator is fixed.
“The way it is done now, you basically rely on your weights and contacts to see what you can get for your people.
“Well, it is just the system. Just the system. It is a system in Nigeria… like I said, I’d have preferred a situation where we all know what we are getting — you don’t need to lobby for it and it is a standard thing.
“Everyone of the 109 senators from the onset should know what is going on in their particular district and it should be published.
“A better approach would have been for senatorial uniformity. So if they say that everyone should get about N1 billion, so be it. But this way, you rely on your weight and contacts to see what you can get for your people.
“This is not money for us. It is money for projects within our senatorial districts. So if you have roads, water projects, training programmes all aggregate to a certain sum.”