Politics
Presidency lying over 2016 budget – NASS
The controversies surrounding the 2016 budget seem not in a hurry to abate, as the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon Abdulmumin Jubrin, has said officials of the Presidency are lying over alleged discrepancies in the final budget document passed by the National Assembly and transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
It would be recalled that it was widely reported on Sunday that President Buhari had, again, withheld assent for the budget, owing to grave alterations allegedly made by the National Assembly.
The removal of the Lagos-Calabar coastal railroad and important vaccines for HIV/AIDS and other common ailments, amongst others were cited as the reason the President decided to send the document back to the National Assembly.
However, Hon. Jubrin, from Kano State, who was elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, debunked the allegations in the media report, insisting that those behind the allegation may not be telling Nigerians the truth.
Jubrin, who said the Lagos-Calabar rail was never included in the budget proposal sent to the National Assembly, wondered how the National Assembly could have removed it. The same goes for the vaccines.
Read also: Budget dead on arrival, as Buhari still withholds assent
The lawmaker, who stated the position of the National Assembly via a series of tweets, said the nation is being misled and that Presidency officials are capitalising on the fact that the National Assembly has had bad press on the 2016 budget to change the narratives.
His tweets below:
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