President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, has debunked claims that the 2024 Budget has allocated twenty-one billion naira for his accommodation.
It would be recalled that reports from several quarters provided an alleged breakdown of budget details, including care items for the office of the Chief of Staff, in the budget estimates presented to the National Assembly by the President last Wednesday.
The report claimed that one hundred and four million naira was proposed for the purchase of computers and printers for ‘local travel and transport for international training while his office is to spend five hundred and seventy-nine million naira and ‘miscellaneous’ is expected to gulp one hundred and three million naira.
The former speaker, reacting to this on his social media handle, said the reports are false as there is no provision in the 2024 Budget proposal for the renovation of his official residence, noting that he lives in his own house.
He explained that the sums mischievously quoted by online news outlets and those he called “fake news merchants” were for the renovation of the Presidential Quarters in Dodan Barracks and the Vice President’s Lodge in Lagos, to overhaul the information management and communications facilities in the Presidency to meet modern standards and to provide vehicles for the staff of the Presidency.’
He said: “I have seen social media commentary regarding the 2024 Appropriation Bill, particularly the provisions under the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President. Owing to the erroneous nature of these reports, it has become necessary to clarify that there is no provision in the 2024 Appropriation Bill for the renovation of any residence for the Chief of Staff to the President. I live in my private residence.
“The sums mischievously quoted by online bloggers and fake news merchants are for renovating the Presidential Quarters in Dodan Barracks and the Vice President’s Lodge in Lagos, to overhaul the information management and communications facilities in the Presidency to meet modern standards and to provide vehicles for the staff of the presidency.
“The sums proposed for these projects are clearly stated in the budget proposal and bear no resemblance to the deceptive online commentary.
“This administration welcomes and encourages scrutiny of government expenditure; this is why the Budget proposal is publicly available. However, healthy public debate about government actions requires us to be responsible with our utterances and engage based on facts rather than insinuations and falsehoods.”
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