THE SENATE: NO BUDGET IS MISSING

The Senate President replied Eyinaya Abaribe, when he  sought for clarification on the news in the media that the copy of the 2016 budget submitted to the Senate was missing, that the issue he (Abaribe) mentioned and all issues emanating from the executive sessions are being looked into by an ad-hoc committee and that all Senators should wait for the committee to submit its report.

But Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, has said no budget  is missing and the Senate will on ,Thursday January 14 distribute copies of the budget to all the Senators so as to arm them to properly contribute to the debate which will take place between 19 January to  January 21, 2015.

“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.

Abdullahi said: “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."