Presidency disclosed yesterday that it had written to the National Assembly leadership regarding the crisis generated by the 2016 budget proposal.
After much effort to confirm reports of the withdrawal of the budget document, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Solomon Ita Enang, who had refused to make any comments on the matter finally responded through a text message.
He however refused to disclose the content of the letter as he stated that it could only be disclosed by the Senate President to Senators.
Enang’s text message reads:”I am to confirm that His Excellency, Mr President has sent a communication to the National Assembly on the 2016 Budget. The content will be read on the floor in plenary please”
The Senate had last Thursday, requested the Presidency to supply it with the soft copy of the version of the budget proposal presented to it by the President last December to enable it print out sufficient copies for distribution to Senators who had already been put on notice by the Senate leadership regarding the commencement of work on the 2016 budget preparation.
The Senate position followed it’s rejection of the replacement of the original version by Ita Enang with a completely different copy.
Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who announced the decision of the Senate’s Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition that investigated the matter, had said:”We have received the report of the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on investigations surrounding 2016 Appropriation Bill. Our finding is that Senator Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate) printed copies of the 2016 Appropriation Bill and brought to the Senate.”
We have discovered that what he brought is different from the version presented by Mr. President.
We have resolved to consider only the version presented by Mr President as soon as we receive soft copy of the original document from the Executive.” he added.
