The second reading of the bill was earlier stepped down pending when copies of details would be made available for senators.
The Senate has finally passed the N98.5bn FCT 2024 supplementary appropriation bill which had earlier led to a rowdy session in the Senate due to unavailability of a breakdown to Senators.
The bill seeks to consolidate the ongoing projects in the FCT and the six area councils within the territory. It proposed a total revenue of N98.5 billion, resulting in a revised total FCT IRS 2024 statutory revenue appropriation of N348 billion.
The executive bil is titled, “A Bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Federal Capital Territory Administration Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federal Capital Territory Administration Account, the total sum of N98,500,000,000 (Ninety Eight Billion, Five Hundred Million Naira) only, to accommodate additional inflow from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), resulting to a revised total FCT-IRS 2024 Statutory Revenue Appropriation to the sum of N348,720,000,000 (Three Hundred and Forty Eight Billion, Seven Hundred and Twenty Million Naira); and for other connected matters, 2024.”
OrderPaper recalls that the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central) during Wednesday’s plenary presented the bill before the Senate but failed to offer a breakdown of how the funds would be spent, leading to murmurs from his colleagues.
The second reading of the bill was therefore stepped down pending when copies of details would be made available for senators.
This development was perceived to be a temporary setback for FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, who has been on a rash of project implementation and commissioning within the territory in recent times.
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However during Thursday’s plenary, documents containing the breakdown was presented to all Senators.
Thereafter, the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau noted that there would be no need to debate on the bill on grounds that all necessary debate had been carried out during Wednesday’s plenary.
The bill was immediately read for a second time after been put to a voice vote.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio thereafter referred the bill to the Committee on FCT and FCT Area Council to report back in one week.
