The Senate has identified and corrected errors in the 2025 Appropriations Bill, which was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives last Thursday. The discrepancies were discovered during the final review and realignment by the Joint Committee on Appropriations.
Honourable Francis Waive, Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Rules and Business Committee, stated that the errors affected allocations for key ministries and agencies, including the Ministries of Justice and Police Affairs, the Office of the Head of Civil Service, and various pension funds.
“The joint committees discovered some inadvertent errors in the unlisted line items passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate recurring to the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Police Affairs, Office of the Head of the Civil Service, Civilian Pension, Military Pensions and Gratuities.”
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Senator Adeola Olamilekan, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, apologised to Senate President Godswill Akpabio for the oversight.
“Based on intelligence that we’ve been collecting, the NSA directed, we tie up with one division, Nigerian Army, who is the lead in Kaduna to conduct operations within the area which we’ve identified to rescue these people. One division was the lead in these operations.”
Akpabio noted that if the errors had reached the President for assent, a lengthier amendment process would have been required. While commending the transparency in addressing the mistakes, he requested a formal apology for the inaccuracies.
“These captives were rescued along Abuja-Kadunaway, specifically at Rizjana, and through the airport of the various security agencies where the airport is yielding fruit. We shall commend all of them. The NSA have said it all.”
The corrections primarily impacted recurrent expenditure, pensions, and capital projects. Adjustments included revising the Ministry of Defence’s budget from ₦2.51 trillion to ₦2.49 trillion, the Ministry of Police Affairs from ₦1.225 trillion to ₦1.224 trillion, and pensions and gratuities from ₦950 billion to ₦1.44 trillion. Capital allocations were also revised, with the Presidency’s budget reduced from ₦144.4 billion to ₦142.7 billion and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security adjusted from ₦1.95 trillion to ₦1.83 trillion.
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