by Dolapo Adelana

Spokesperson of the house of representatives, Abdulrazak Namdas, has said Kaduna Governor Nasir el-Rufai, is yet to publish his security votes.

This is coming after the governor took up the challenge of Speaker Yakubu Dogara to publish Kaduna state’s security vote, as he urged Dogara to also make public the budget of the National Assembly.

Speaking with journalists on Tuesday, Namdas, who urged El-Rufai to focus on solving the security crisis in Southern Kaduna said the governor released the state’s security budget, not the security votes.

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He urged the governor to face the security issues arising from the southern Kaduna crisis.

In a statement Namdas said as a senior citizen, el-Rufai should not overheat the polity with “tendentious and unfounded outbursts”.

“We note that what Mallam el-Rufai published was the security budget of Kaduna state and not his security vote expenditure as such,” Namdas told journalists.

“We wish to advise the Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to concentrate his efforts in Governing Kaduna State and stop undermining and distracting the national assembly in playing its constitutionally assigned role in nation building.

“He launched an attack on the National Assembly on Friday, 7th April, 2017 and continued on Monday 10th April 2017. We are aware that there are serious security issues he should be grappling with in southern Kaduna and other governmental issues facing him.”

[Read Also:] Dogara releases salary details, pay slip

He added that the budget of the National Assembly is not opaque, explaining that since the constitution was amended in 2010, the legislature was put in a first line charge.

“Its budget became part of statutory transfers, together with the Judiciary, INEC and others. You cannot find details of the Budget of the Judiciary and INEC in the national budget,” Namdas said.

“It exists elsewhere. Of course from 1999 to 2010, the details of the national assembly budget was contained in the national budget.”

Namdas said that the leadership of the legislature had directed the national clerk to start publishing the budget from 2017.

“To continue to repeat the same call made 3 days earlier smacks of propaganda and cheap blackmail,” he said.

“The Kaduna state Governor chose to give headings of its budget on security related matters. Maybe he will give further details of actual security expenditures at the appropriate time.

“He claimed that the State’s accounts have been audited. No grounds have been broken here. The response by the Kaduna state governor completely missed the point.

“It is most uncharitable to ignore the fact that the National Assembly is an arm of government, not a department in the executive branch. The budget of so many agencies in the executive is higher than that of National Assembly, an arm of government.

“Such agencies as NCC – N102billion, CBN – N421billion, NPA – N250billion, NIMASA – N100billion, FIRS – N146billion, Customs – N81billion and NNPC whose budget runs into trillions are some examples. Indeed, the National Assembly Budget is about 2% of the national budget.”