On Sunday morning, Agom Jarigbe, the senator representing Cross River North constituency, revealed he failed to scrutinise the 2024 appropriation bill he voted to pass.

During an interview on the Arise TV Morning Show, Jarigbe was asked about the contrast between his constituency’s N25 million allocation for women empowerment and Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President’s N2.5 billion constituency allowance embedded in the Ministry of Women Affairs’ budget.

Jarigbe said he did not want to talk about the budget but about his thanksgiving ceremony, which was slated to be held after the interview.

He went on to answer questions on election petition tribunals, his claim during plenary that some legislators got more allocations to their constituencies than he did and whether he supported Senator Abdul Ningi’s budget padding claim.

Reacting, Adesuwa Giwa-Osagie, one of the interviewers, doubled down on her questions on the disparity of allocations. She asked if he was willing to discuss how much his district got in allocations as Akpabio reportedly got around N50 billion for his constituency.

“Anyway, I’ve not scrutinised the budget,” Jarigbe responded. “I didn’t get a consultant to scrutinise the budget. I know that I did not receive as much as some other senators did.”

He then said his constituency and zonal provisions were close to N1 billion but some senators got more. He also said he could not speak more to avoid “wahala“.

Steve Ayorinde, another anchor, asked Jarigbe if there was a legal framework for constituency projects, and the lawmaker responded, saying, “The legal framework is that the budget lies with the National Assembly.”

Twice, Jarigbe said he did not scrutinise the budget but heard an explanation for how N28 trillion was arrived at, which was what he voted for.

READ MORE: Budget Padding: Senator Jarigbe Says ‘Senior’ Senators Got N500m Each

After speaking about his thanksgiving service, Giwa-Osagie asked him if he voted to pass the budget he did not scrutinise and if he voted to suspend Ningi.

Jarigbe said he sought leniency for Ningi as he did not know the facts at the time. On how he voted for the bill’s passing, the senator said, “I did not scrutinise the budget line by line. It is the collective responsibility of the Senate and all the senators to be blamed for whatever inadequacies, and I also take responsibility, but I think the executive should submit the budget earlier than they did this time around so the National Assembly would have time to scrutinise the budget. The budget line items were not srutinised by me.”

When Giwa-Osagie asked if he scrutinised the line items for his constituency, Jarigbe said he did not, then protested.

“Come o, what’s this budget budget talk na? I want to talk about my thanksgiving and the representation of my people. You people are doing budget, budget, budget. I will walk away o,” he thundered. “You people want me to say something that I will go and face wahala. Let me serve my people quietly.”

He then cut off from the interview abruptly as the anchors debated how indicting his claims were.