The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, has frowned at what he described as “erroneous” reports on the proposed 2024 budget, saying those who engage in public debate about government actions must be responsible with their utterances and engage based on facts rather than insinuations and falsehoods.

Gbajabiamila, who’s the immediate-past Speaker of the House of Representatives, also denied the existence of any provision in the 2024 Appropriation Bill for the renovation of the residence of the Chief of Staff to the President, insisting that he lives in his private residence.

Taking to his X handle (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu said the figures being quoted were for renovating the Presidential Quarters in Dodan Barracks and the Vice President’s Lodge in Lagos, to overhaul the information management and communications facilities in the Presidency to meet modern standards and to provide vehicles for the staff of the Presidency.

He wrote: “I have seen social media commentary regarding the 2024 Appropriation Bill, particularly the provisions under the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President. Owing to the erroneous nature of these reports, it has become necessary to clarify that there is no provision in the 2024 Appropriation Bill for the renovation of any residence for the Chief of Staff to the President. I live in my private residence.

“The sums mischievously quoted by online bloggers and fake news merchants are for renovating the Presidential Quarters in Dodan Barracks and the Vice President’s Lodge in Lagos, to overhaul the information management and communications facilities in the Presidency to meet modern standards and to provide vehicles for the staff of the Presidency. The sums proposed for these projects are clearly stated in the budget proposal and bear no resemblance to the deceptive online commentary.

“This administration welcomes and encourages scrutiny of government expenditure; this is why the Budget proposal is publicly available. However, healthy public debate about government actions requires us to be responsible with our utterances and engage based on facts rather than insinuations and falsehoods.”

Earlier, there were viral reports on how Femi Gbajabiamila, is expected to get a total allocation of N21 billion in next year’s budget estimates presented to the National Assembly by the President last month.

“A breakdown of the proposed estimates as uploaded on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation, however, shows that Mr Gbajabiamila proposed N104 million for the purchase of computers and printers for ‘local travel and transport for international training,’ the CoS office plans to spend N579 million, while ‘miscellaneous’ is expected to gulp N103 million.

A further breakdown of the proposed budgetary allocations shows that the project for reconstruction and repair of the CoS’s official residence is to get N10 billion.

Computer software purchase is expected to gulp about N10.1 billion and N290 million is the allocation for purchase of vehicles.”