The announcement was made by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki,during plenary sessions.
Some Nigerian senators have however voiced their suspicion of the Presidency behind the sudden disappearance of the 2016 budget submitted to the National Assembly .PREMIUM TIMES report.
According to the lawmakers who spoke behind anonymity, the intelligence they had so far gathered suggested that the presidency discreetly withdrew the documents to enable it to make some adjustments to it.
The senators said the presidency had in the past two weeks been combing through the budgets with a view to removing provisions that had so far exposed the administration to ridicule.
“The executive have now started delivering fresh copies of the budget documents to the National Assembly,” one of the senators said.
“The details in the copies they are delivering are different from those in the version delivered to the National Assembly in December. Some adjustments have been made.”
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu,speaking on the missing document rebuffed the reports insisting that though the President had the authority to do so, he didn't.
He also suggested that the issue of missing budgets should not arise because several copies of the document were sent to the legislature.
“Nobody except the president can withdraw the budget; as far as we know, he hasn’t done that,”
“The copies in their hundreds have been delivered to both chambers of the National Assembly.
“By tradition, once the budget is submitted, it ceases to be our property. Inquiries should be directed to the appropriate quarters.” He said.
When contacted, the Minister of State for National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, expressed shock at reports of missing budget.
She denied the allegation and explained that ahead of Tuesday’s resumption of the Senate and House of Representatives, more than 400 copies of the document were delivered to the two chambers on Monday by the printer, for distribution to all members.
“After the official presentation of the budget by the President on December 22, 2015, both hard and soft copies were given to some key members of the Assembly. How can anyone say all the copies are missing?” She said.
Immediately after the presentation by the President most of the members went on break. But a printer was given the job to produce the document for distribution to all members on resumption.
“On Monday, the printer delivered more than 400 copies to the National Assembly for distribution to members and their aides. Another 100 copies were delivered this afternoon (Tuesday). Therefore, the same budget cannot be said to be missing.”
Mrs. Ahmed argued that if there is need to withdraw the budget, the same process with which it was presented by the president to the legislature would be followed.
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