JUST IN: SENATE SUSPENDS BUDGET DEFENSE FOR AUDITOR GENERAL’S OFFICE

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The Nigerian Senate has suspended the 2025 budget defense for the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAGF).

This move could lead to a zero allocation for the OAGF, as the Senate had earlier set Wednesday, January 22, 2025, as the deadline for budget defenses to allow the Committee on Appropriation to finalize reports from various committees.

Chira appeared before the committee unprepared and was unable to respond to questions regarding the 2024 budget performance of his office.

Tensions arose when the budget documents being reviewed by the Auditor General differed from the copies provided to the committee members.

As a result, Senator Ahmed Wadada, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, dismissed Auditor General S.K. Chira and his team due to poor preparation and mismanagement of their documents.

But allying fears of missing the budget chances, Wadada told the press after the Committee meeting that: “It is left for the Auditor General for the Federation to go get prepared and return, even in two hours now that he has been told that Wednesday is the deadline.

“He is the Auditoe General auditing government agencies, Senate Public Accounts Committee is statutorily empowered to audit his office.