Featured
Saraki Refuses To Be Arm-Twisted By The Presidency, Says Senate Will Not Accept Doctored Budget
There are indications that President Muhammadu Buhari wants to arm-twist the leadership of the National Assembly into accepting a doctored budget different from the one the President submitted to the joint session of the National assembly last year.
Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Thursday, announced that the Senate will only accept the version of the 2016 Appropriation Bill that was presented by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015 Joint Session of the National Assembly.
SP@bukolasaraki also adds that the Senate also received a different version of the #2016Budget from SSA to @MBuhari, Ita Enang.
— Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) January 14, 2016
SP @bukolasaraki however announces that the Senate will only accept the version of the #Budget that was earlier submitted by the President.
— Nigerian Senate (@NGRSenate) January 14, 2016
Saraki made this statement after the Senate ad hoc committee setup to investigate the claims of the 2016 budget being misplaced delivered its report at the Senate plenary. In their report, the investigative committee revealed that the Senate have in its possession two versions of the 2016 Appropriation Bill – one from the President, and another from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate).
The Senate President revealed that consideration of the 2016 Appropriation Bill would commence on Tuesday January 19th and further stated that if the Presidency wants to amend the initial version of the bill that was submitted to the National Assembly, there were proper legislative channels to do so.
Sources say the President of the senate is being pressured to accept the doctored budget from the Presidency, the Nigeria's budget was hurriedly put together by the Executive to allow for Presentation before the end of 2015.. So the following tweets basically explains the drama that ensued over the alleged missing 2016 budget,
FLASH: National Budget not "missing" President @MBuhari secretly withdrew it from the Senate last week
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) January 12, 2016 FLASH: #Budgetnotmissing National Assembly leadership & the Presidency had agreed to keep it under wraps to avoid embarrassing @MBuhari
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) January 12, 2016 FLASH: @bukokasaraki doing everything to avoid Code of Conduct trial so agree to let @MBuhari secretly tinker with National Budget
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) January 12, 2016
