The decision of the Senate to blow the lid on the
controversy dogging the 2016 Budget was informed
by the need to forestall future occurrences and
prevent possible national embarrassment, sources in the legislature said at the weekend.

Sources in the Senate told the Sunday Tribune that
the lawmakers were more than alarmed at the
revelation that the Budget document submitted by
President Muhammadu Buhari grew wings shortly
after its presentation and was resubmitted through
the back door.

It was gathered that the lawmakers decided to blow
the matter open following suspicion that if this was
condoned, similar things could happen to bills after
the passage by the Assembly.

The senators at the Tuesday closed session of where the budget matter was revealed, were told that the budget was practically missing as some officials of the government were said to have quietly withdrawn the copy submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari and replaced the same.

Sources said that a claim at the closed session
indicated that there was high suspicion that the box
presented to the Joint Session of the National
Assembly by the President did not contain the
document.

One of the speakers was said to have told the
senators that it was after the presentation that two
copies of the budget were presented to the Clerk of
Senate and House of Representatives Committee on
Appropriation.

It was gathered that if the box presented by the
president contained the document, the box would
have been taken to the Office of the Clerk to the
National Assembly (CNA), who would in turn send the copies for printing and then to the Committees on Appropriation. But sources said at the closed session that the office of the CNA had nothing to do with the document as the budget copies were only deposited at the Appropriation Committees.

The senators were further told that it was, therefore, easy for the presidential aide to retrieve the budget from those officials and replace as he wished. Findings at the Senate Ethics Committee, which also probed the controversy over the document, confirmed that the presidential aide was
instrumental in the retrieval of the budget document from the Clerk of Senate Appropriation Committee after he had contacted the Acting Clerk to the Senate to help him reach the Clerk of Appropriation.

At the closed session, the senators were said to have preferred three courses of action, including moving a motion on the floor to alert the nation, using the Ethics Committee to probe the missing original document and asking Senate President Bukola Saraki to reach out to the president on the matter. But it was Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who raised the issue through a Point of Order on Wednesday, making Saraki to publicly announce that the Senate was awaiting the report of the Ethics committee.

It was gathered that the Senate Ethics Committee
headed by Senator Sam Anyanwu interrogated the
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly, Senator Ita Enang, the Acting Clerk of Senate and the Clerk of the senate Appropriation Committee to get to the roots of the budget saga, leading to its verdict that Enang withdrew the document from the senate.

Investigations by Sunday Tribune, however,
confirmed that the Presidency has discovered the
two versions of the Budget 2016 and is set to clear
the air on the matter this week.
“The Presidency has confirmed the report of the
Senate that a doctored version of the budget is in
circulation. The Minister of Finance and some
presidential aides are to address the issue this week,” a source close to the matter told Sunday Tribune.


www.tribuneonlineng.com/2016-budget-drama-how-the-document-was-doctored

OK

hmmmm

Nigeria receive help.

cosmo84:
Nigeria receive help.

And where's the help coming from?