Patience Jonathan, Nigeria’s first lady, has protested her innocence in an alleged over-budgeting scam in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, which she pulled off by colluding with a former education minister, Nyesome Wike.
The allegation and others regarding the bloating of the NDDC budget for 2015, which ultimately will be diverted to Patience and Wike, surfaced in the news recently.
Ayo Adewuyi, Patience’s media assistant, debunked the allegation, which it said could not have happened based on parliamentary proceeding for budget passage.
“Nigerians are very conversant with the workings of the National Assembly regarding passage of budgets.
“Parliamentary process requires that the Appropriation Bill goes through First Reading, Second Reading and Third Reading and subsequent harmonisation by the two chambers.
“One then wonders at which level of this process the First Lady influenced the passage of the NDDC budget that warranted her being paid N3bn for the alleged ‘consultancy.’
“It will be impossible for one single person to influence its passage or is the author trying to indict our lawmakers?
“The report is, therefore, to say the least, dubious, diversionary, unfair, unkind, and therefore totally unacceptable. Patience Jonathan did no such thing.”
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