NDLEA blames ‘typo error’ for N4.5bn allegedly padded into its proposed 2022 budget

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has denied that N4.5bn was padded into its proposed 2022 budget.

The Nigerian Senate had rejected the report of its Committee on Drugs and Narcotics when it discovered the document that illegally contains 4.5 billion naira meant for the construction of Police barracks in the 2022 budget for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Drugs and Narcotic Hezekiah Dimka, while the presenting the report to the Committee on Appropriations, said his Committee discovered the irregularity in the course of scrutinizing the budget document presented to it by the Ministry of Finance and raised the alarm.

But, the spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja that the agency has been inundated with calls and messages since Tuesday seeking clarification on an alleged insertion of N4.5bn for the construction of police barracks into the NDLEA’s proposed budget being considered by the Senate.

“It is public knowledge that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the construction of barracks for NDLEA over a period of four years starting from the 2022 fiscal year.

“Investigations have confirmed that the amount in question is indeed for the construction of NDLEA barracks but typographically inputted as ‘police barracks’ in one of the documents attached to the proposal from the Budget Office.

“The typo error has since been corrected and the budget cleared on Tuesday by the Senate Committee,” Babafemi said.