The Senate on Thursday accused the
executive of smuggling copies of a doctored version of the 2016
Appropriation Bill into the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
The Senate stated this while discussing
the report of its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions,
which it set up to investigate the alleged disappearance of the budget.
The Senate President, Senator Bukola
Saraki, after a two-hour executive session with his colleagues,
explained that the upper chamber deliberated extensively on the report
of the committee behind closed doors.
At the plenary, Saraki said the
committee, in its report, revealed that the Senate had in its possession
two versions of the 2016 budget proposal.
According to him, the first version is
the hard copy submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari while the second
is a different version produced and brought into the Senate by the
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters
(Senate), Senator Ita Enang.
Saraki, however, said members of the
upper chamber had resolved to start the consideration of the 2016
Appropriation Bill on Tuesday, January 19, but with only the original
document submitted to the National Assembly by Buhari.
He noted that if the Presidency wanted
to amend the initial version of the bill that was submitted to the
National Assembly, there were proper legislative channels to do so.
Saraki added, “Our findings revealed
that Senator Ita Enang, the SSA to the President on NASS Matters,
printed copies of the 2016 Appropriation Bill and brought them to the
Senate. We have discovered that what he brought was different from the
version presented to us by Mr. President.
“We have resolved to consider only the
version presented by Mr. President as soon as we receive the soft copies
of the original document from the Executive.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media
and Public Affairs, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, in company with his deputy,
Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, also told journalists after plenary, that
Enang mass-produced for distribution, a different version of the
document.
He said, “The report about a missing budget is not true. We don’t have a budget that is missing.
“The investigation by the Committee on
Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, had been submitted at the
executive session. It was a fallout of the collective decision we took
at the last executive session.
“Our findings are these: That Mr .
President did lay the budget before the joint session of the National
Assembly and thereafter, the senate went on recess and upon resumption,
copies of the document were produced by Senator Ita Enang, who is the
SSA to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate) and the
copies were submitted to the Senate and House of Representatives.
“What we found out is that the document,
submitted by Senator Ita Enang, upon our resumption, has some
differences and discrepancies with what was originally laid by Mr.
President at the joint sitting of the National Assembly.
“However, the Senate in defence of its
own integrity and honour, will not work with what has not been laid on
the floor of the National Assembly. We are constitutionally mandated and
duty bound to consider only that budget that had been so laid by Mr.
President.
“The budget submitted by the president is not missing.”
The Senate spokesperson assured
Nigerians that the senators would as from next week, get down to
business as members had already picked dates to speak during the three
days set aside for the debate on the 2016 budget.
He recalled that Saraki visited Buhari
on Tuesday because the Senate leadership was mandated to speak with all
those concerned with the document, hence, “that was why the Senate
President was in touch with Mr. President”
Enang, who was alleged to have submitted
another version of the budget, different from the version submitted by
Buhari, declined comments on the issue when contacted by one of our
correspondents on Thursday.
A source in Enang’s office said, “Oga
is just a sacrificial lamb in this case because he was being unfairly
accused of an offence he never committed. These copies were brought to
our office and Oga just asked us to start distribution. How will he know the content?’’
Attempts to speak to the Chairman,
Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator
Samuel Anyanwu, on the differences between the documents submitted by
Buhari and the one distributed by Enang, failed as he declined comments
on the issue.
A member of the committee, however, told
our correspondent that their terms of reference did not include
examining both versions of the documents to identify the differences.
But the Presidency said the current
level of relationship between the Executive and the Legislature is too
precious to be expended on issues that are not compelling.
The Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said this in an
interview with one of our correspondents on Thursday.
Shehu was reacting to the claim by the Senate that the Presidency smuggled doctored 2016 Budget proposal to its chamber.
The presidential spokesman said since
the lawmakers had expressed their readiness to start working on the
budget, the Presidency would not encourage anything that would distract
them from the work at hand.
He said, “We are happy that they (the
lawmakers) are ready to get on with the budget. We don’t want anything
that will distract them from their work.
“The present level of relationship
between the Executive and the Legislature is too precious to be expended
on issues that are not compelling.”
But the National Working Committee of
the Peoples Democratic Party has called on the National Assembly to
remove Buhari for what it described as various constitutional breaches,
especially the submission of two versions of the 2006 budget proposal.
The PDP said this in a statement by its Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus on Thursday.
The party said the National Assembly
should thoroughly investigate what it described as a shameful act,
including what it called the distortion and banding of figures to
accommodate personal interest.
“We therefore call on the National
Assembly to commence the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari for
the various constitutional breaches especially the submission of two
versions of the 2006 budget,” the party stated.
Secondus also asked the Ministers of
Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Presidential Adviser on
National Assembly to resign, saying they had failed to provide the
much-needed capacity in the management of the nation’s economy, which he
said resulted in the embarrassing crashing of the nation’s currency to
as low as N305 to a dollar.
The PDP also asked the Governor of
Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to resign for allegedly
plunging “the country’s currency policy into chaos, an action that has
thrown investors into total confusion.”
In his own reaction, the Chairman,
Senate Committee on National Identity, Senator Kabiru Marafa, faulted
the argument of his colleagues that two versions of the 2016 budget,
were available in the Senate.
Marafa, in an interview with journalists
in his office on Thursday, challenged the Senate leadership to make the
two versions of the 2016 budget available to members of the public or
should identify the differences.
He denied Enang’s culpability in the
alleged smuggling of the doctored document into the Senate, adding that
such action was impossible.
Marafa added, “I don’t understand what
is playing out. We started with one problem and we are ending with
another problem. Today, we say there are two versions, the procedure of
laying budget is very clear.
“President Muhammadu Buhari laid the
budget in December. If somebody says there are two versions, where is
the second version and when did we have procedure of collecting budget
from SSA? We have procedure. I think it is very necessary to
differentiate what is fake and original.
“Mr. President laid the budget inside
the box and it is still inside the box. Ita Enang will be the last
person that will do that. If you doctor one out of eight copies, does it
make sense?’’
Investigations revealed that the copy
laid by the President was still in the box with which it was conveyed
while the Executive had withdrawn the version said to have earlier been
distributed by Enang.
Further findings at the office of the
Senate President and the SSA to the President on NASS Matters, revealed
that all the “doctored” version had been completely returned to the
Budget Office, thereby making it difficult to spot the differences.
Contrary to the argument of the Senate,
the House of Representatives said it had only one version of the 2016
budget as laid before the joint session of the National Assembly in
December by Buhari.
It also clarified that it would go ahead
next week to start debating the general principles of the budget as
laid by the President.
The House maintained its position that
no budget was missing from its chamber, adding that the same document
submitted by Buhari earlier was intact.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media
and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, clarified the position of the
House to reporters amid claims that there were two versions of the
N6.08tn document.
Namdas said on Thursday, “As far as we are concerned in the House, the budget is in the public domain.
“It is the same document that was laid by Mr. President that we have with us.
“Next week, we will begin to consider the proposal. Any other document outside the one Mr. President presented is not with us.
“So, for us, if our budget was never missing, how could we have another version?”
Namdas, who confirmed an exclusive report by The PUNCH
on Tuesday, explained that the House shifted the consideration of the
budget to next week to give members the time to study the details.
“You know, we just reconvened after the Christmas and New Year break.
“Members need a few days to study the document. We could have started the consideration this week,” he stated.
The House also claimed that contrary to
“interpretations by some persons,” Buhari did not say that he would stop
the National Assembly from buying 469 exotic cars for its legislative
duties.
Namdas, who was making a reference to
Buhari’s December 30 media chat, said the President’s reaction was due
to the “wrong” figures that were given to him on the cost of the cars.
He added, “Mr. President never said he would stop us from buying cars.
“He was given a wrong figure of N47bn as
the cost of the cars. He only said if it was true that such an amount
would be spent on cars, there would be issues.
“It has turned out that the N47bn is not true. That was as far as the issue went.”
-Punch
