The
2016 budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly by President
Muhammadu Buhari last month, has been declared missing as new report
suggests how it was stolen from the 3-arms zone.
President Buhari presenting the 2016 budget to the National Assembly
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An authoritative report by Premium Times,
revealed that the hard and soft copies of the 2016 budget documents
President Muhammadu Buhari handed over to the National Assembly on
December 22, 2015 have been declared missing.
Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, shocked lawmakers at a closed-door
session, when he told them the budget documents had been stolen as the
Nigerian Senate scheduled to commence deliberation on the proposed
budget on Tuesday (today).
The Chairman, Senate Committee of Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, was
subsequently mandated to lead a search for the documents and liaise with
the presidency, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on
National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, and the National Planning Ministry
on the matter.
Sources disclosed to the publication said senators of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) accused the presidency of being behind the theft
of the documents, an accusation rejected by their All Progressives
Congress (APC) counterparts, saying it was too early to speculate.
It was learnt that the Senators also resolved that the matter be
kept under wraps, saying making it public could embarrass the
presidency, the National Assembly and the entire country.
Some lawmakers told a correspondent they are suspicious that the
presidency might have colluded with the management of the National
Assembly to quietly withdraw the documents after detecting some
discrepancies in them.
"Can you imagine this kind of national embarrassment?. Documents that were presented to us with fanfare have been stolen," one senator asked.
It can be recalled that the President Muhammadu Buhari, on December
22, 2015, presented to lawmakers the the N6.08 trillion 2016 budget, as
copies were not distributed to lawmakers before they proceeded on
Christmas and New Year holidays.
This new development of the missing budget drew speculations that
the president had withdrawn the documents to enable him to correct some
discrepancies, a claim the presidency and the National Planning Ministry
denied.
In the budget, capital expenditure was N1.8 trillion, marking a
significant over 300 per cent increment from the 2015 buget of N557
billion.
The spokesperson for the senate, Aliyu Abdullahi, could not been
reached for comments, so also was Senator Goje, the chairman of the
appropriation committee.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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