BUDGET INSERTIONS: Protesters block NASS

Federal lawmakers resumed duties on Tuesday to meet a motley crowd of protesters who had blocked the entrance to the National Assembly protesting alleged insertions into the 2018 budget.

The protesters with placards bearing different inscriptions sang songs, with some calling the lawmakers thieves and other unpleasant names, accusing them of working against the people’s interest.

NationaL convener of the Citizens Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN), said to have coordinated the protest, Ibrahim Garba Wala castigated Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and called on them to step down from office.

According to him, “They lack the requisite credibility and moral capacity to hold the position of authority,” Wala said.

He continued, that “It is clear that the insertions are huge, which also signifies the size of the criminality behind the intent to hijack the budget.”

Read also: In all conscience, APC shouldn’t stay in power beyond 2019 –Saraki’s Chief of Staff

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari while signing the 2018 budget into law, noted that he was being forced to do so, as the lawmakers had inserted 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion into the appropriations bill.

he also stated that “The national assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them”

“As it is, some of these projects relate to matters that are the responsibility of the states and local governments, and for which the federal government should therefore not be unduly burdened.”

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