Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has indicted National Assembly Committees for slashing of budgetary allocation for the completion of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu in the 2018 budget from N2billion to N500million.
Ekweremadu rejected insinuation that he or the South East lawmakers backed slashing of the budget proposal for the project.
Ekweremadu, in a statement on Thursday, assured that the South East federal lawmakers and the National Assembly remained committed to the early completion of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
He said his investigation showed that the cuts took place at the committees level and that hopefully the affected committees would have explanations to make when the National Assembly resumes.
The lawmaker explained that it would be unfair to expect him to monitor the activities of the over 60 committees of the Senate and 100 committees in the House of Representatives unless his attention was called to any challenges.
Ekweremadu said: “The Committees of the National Assembly are usually given a free hand to do their jobs, but they are structured in a way that every geopolitical zone is represented. That way, they can call the attention of the principal officer from their zone when any challenges arise.
“But in this case, the South East holds the positions of Vice Chairman of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriation and also chairs the House Committee on Aviation. Unfortunately, unlike in the case of Committee on Works where my attention was called to the challenges in appropriations, award, and funding of major road projects and I made my modest interventions to resolve the issues, nobody informed me of any challenges concerning budgetary provisions for the Akanu Ibiam Airport.”
Ekweremadu added that the quest for a befitting international airport for the South East had been a daunting challenge, pointing out that the government did not release the N2 billion approved by the National Assembly in the 2017 budget for the terminal building at the Enugu Airport.
The South East Senate Caucus had earlier expressed shock over reported cut in the 2018 budget allocation for the Enugu Airport Terminal.
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