The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila has described reports claiming there is a provision for the renovation of his Office as the Chief of Staff to the President in the 2024 Appropriation Bill as “erroneous nature.”
The former House of Representatives Speaker discredited stories going around online that an enormous amount of money was budgeted for the renovation of his residence in the 2024 Appropriation Bill.
The report claims that the sum of N10 billion was budgeted for the renovation of the Chief of Staff’s residence and that N10.1 billion was also set aside for his computer software.
Responding to the claims on Wednesday, Gbajabiamila disclosed he only lives in his private house.
“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,” he said.
He clarified that 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.”
According to him, the amounts proposed for the projects are plainly defined 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,” he expressed.
Last Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu presented the nation’s N27.5 trillion budget christened, ‘Budget of Renewed Hope,’ to a joint sitting of the National Assembly.
