A senator from Abia State, Eyinnaya Abaribe, has been arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) in Abuja on Friday.
Abaribe chairs the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy.
Although the reason for the arrest of the legislator is unknown, he is popular as a strong critic of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
He had alleged that N30 billion was smuggled into the 2018 budget for expansion and re-enforcement of infrastructure in the distribution companies to reduce stranded firms.
He said: “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.”
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Eyinnaya Abaribe also complained about the reduction in the budget allocation for the Enugu airport terminal.
“No right thinking Igbo man would support any cut on allocation for projects in the south-east region.
“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,” he said.
It would be recalled that Abaribe is one of the sureties for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Kanu has disappeared since last year and Abaribe and others have not been able to produce him despite the pressure mounted on them by the court.
