2016 budget documents have been stolen from National Assembly

The 2016 budget documents President Muhammadu Buhari handed over to the National Assembly on December 22, 2015, the hard and soft copies of it have been declared missing.

The Nigerian Senate was scheduled to commence deliberation on the proposed budget Tuesday (today).

It was shocked when Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, disclose this to lawmakers at a closed-door session, when he told them the budget documents had been stolen.

 Deliberation on the budget could therefore not begin until fresh copies of the documents were obtained from the presidency, the Ministry of Finance or that of national planning.

The Chairman, Senate Committee of Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, was subsequently mandated to lead a search for the documents and liaise with the presidency, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, and the national planning ministry on the matter.

The Senators also resolved that the matter be kept under wraps, saying making it public could embarrass the presidency, the National Assembly and the country.

Our sources said senators of the Peoples Democratic Party accused the presidency of being behind the theft of the documents, an accusation rejected by their All Progressives Congress’ counterparts, who reportedly said it was too early to speculate.