The Senate has said that it is washing its hands off the over N400 billion increase in the N4.6 trillion budget estimate for 2010.

The legislative upper chamber, however insisted that the N4.06 trillion budget remains operational as well as an Act of the National Assembly until amended by the National Assembly.

The Upper House in a reaction said that the increase followed 27 additional requests and inputs from the executive in the 2010 appropriation bill.

Senate spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze at a news briefing yesterday also insisted that the projected $67 per barrel benchmark for the year was fixed by the National Assembly after due consultation with the budget office in the presidency.

Although he said that Senate was not ready to trade blame with the executive on the budget, he however said “we did every thing together with the executive”.

According to him, it was the same executive that had initially presented a budget of N4.03 trillion that later introduced 27 more additional projects that increased the 2010 estimate.

He explained that the approved oil benchmark of $67 was largely informed by the then prevailing oil price of over $89 per barrel of crude oil at the international market.

He however said that Senate would take another look at the budget in line with the present economic realities, adding that until such amendment is done, the budget as it is, remains an Act of the National Assembly.

On state creation, Senator Eze said that Senate will be guided by the provision of Section 9 of the 1999 constitution.

Eze who confirmed that state creation was still on the card, however said that certain criteria will be considered by the Senate in recommending the states that will be created.

“I want to announce to you that as we come to the conclusion of that first phase, we are already getting ourselves ready for the next phase of the amendment of the Constitution, because there is a need for us to prove skeptics wrong because there are Nigerians that say states cannot be created under civilian dispensation.

“We want to prove in the next outing that indeed our democracy has come of age and we can do mutual discussion through dialogue, through debates and through consensus building among ourselves to restructure and realign the political framework of Nigeria in a manner that will be useful and beneficial and satisfy the aspirations of Nigerians.

“And having said so, when we start, we are going to take request for states creations on their merit. We will be guided by the basic provisions in Section 9 and the relevant sections in the Constitution and we are also going to be guided above all by some of the evidential parameters such as viability, such as ability of such a state being created to promote unity, promote harmony and promote the growth of the Nigerian state, because any state creation exercise that will be rancorous, unfortunately, we will stay away from it. “So, my advice is that those who want to request for state must go and organise themselves properly and do it consensually and come up with request that accord with the provision of 1999 Constitution and hopefully 1999 Constitution would be altered by that time as well as gain the positive response of the Houses of Assembly”.

The Senate spokesman however allayed fears that state governors will prevail on the State Assemblies to withhold their concurrence for the reviewed 1999 constitution

Senator Eze said that Senate has been in constant discussion with the governors and their states Assemblies, adding that the governors are eager to get the constitution amended by the National Assembly and therefore will not work against it now.