SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, (THEWILL) – The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested the Senator representing Abia South in the Senate, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe.
He was arrested in Abuja on Friday at a popular hotel located at Maitama District.
Although no official reason has been given for his arrest, Abaribe, Chairman, senate committee on power, steel development and metallurgy, had recently alleged that N30 billion was smuggled into the allocation for power in the 2018 Budget.
He said the N30 billion was listed for expansion and re-enforcement of infrastructure in the distribution companies to reduce stranded firms but insisted that his committee was not aware of the insertion.
“The amount never passed through the senate power committee. Where did such huge sum of N30 billion come from?
“Let the budget office and other relevant bodies conduct self examination. Such self examination will go a long way to clear gray areas,” he said.
Also, Abaribe who chairs the south-east senate caucus, expressed shock over the cut in the budget allocation for the Enugu airport terminal saying an emergency meeting of south-east lawmakers had been summoned to unravel when the cut was effected and by who.
“No right thinking Igbo man would support any cut on allocation for projects in the south-east region,” he said.
“We are committed and determined to find out who made the cut.
“We actually lobbied for the Enugu airport terminal allocation to be increased to N3.5 billion until the ministry of aviation told them that it could not be increased beyond the N2 billion allocation.”
Meanwhile, Abaribe stood in as surety for Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), that is no where to be found but on trial for treason.
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