The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, has said that no statement made by any senator during plenary on Wednesday can be interpreted to mean an admission that the 2016 Budget is missing.
Abdullahi said the 2016 Budget is not missing as the Senate will on Thursday distribute copies of the budget to all senators so as to arm them to properly contribute to the debate that will take place on it between January 19 and January 21, 2015.
He said already, all senators have indicated the date they will make their own contributions on the budget.
Abdullahi’s statement is coming on a day Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe (PDP-Abia) had at plenary said there was the need to clarify the state of the budget, which was declared missing.
Abaribe said at plenary that the issue of the missing budget dominated discussion at the closed-door meeting the senators had on Tuesday.
In response to the query by Abaribe, the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, said a committee had been set up to find out what happened to the budget.
Saraki said the committee has up till Thursday to submit the report.
Abaribe’s query was based on an initial pronouncement by Saraki that the senators were going to commence the debate on the budget on Tuesday.
But Abdullahi in his statement on Wednesday said during Wednesday’s plenary when Senator Abaribe sought for clarification on the story in the media surrounding the information that the copy of the 2016 budget submitted to the Senate was missing and sought to know update on the issue, it was not an indication that the budget was missing.
He added: “The Senate President replied that the issue he (Abaribe) mentioned and all issues emanating from the executive sessions are being looked into by an adhoc committee and that all Senators should wait for the committee to submit its report.
“We have reeled out our time table for working on the budget. So, how can the same budget be missing? The Senate President never said or admitted that the budget is missing and there was nothing that he said while presiding over the plenary that could be logically interpreted to mean am admission that the budget is missing.
“The media should please avoid unnecessary sensationalism. We assure Nigerians that our time table of completing work on the budget by February ending remains sacrosanct and we will work assiduously to achieve it.”
