Vanguard reports that the national leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has advised the Senate to consider only the budget that was originally presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the general public and not that which was withdrawn and “doctored” afterwards.
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According to the party, there is need for the upper chamber to ensure that necessary steps to forestall re-occurrence of such “impunity” as well as punishing the perpetrators of such act against the Nigeria people is installed.
The LP vehemently warned in a statement issued in Abuja by the national chairman on Tuesday, January 19.
In the statement titled “interesting times in Nigeria”, the party noted that the missing budget issue was one that bothers on integrity, ethics, value system and corruption. Adding that that the whole world is waiting earnestly to see what steps would be taken by the Parliament to rectify “the insolvency and act of reckless irresponsibility.”
“We therefore advise the senate to consider only the budget that was originally presented by the President and in considering the budget exercise commonsense economics through the engagement of professionals in the field of monetary, infrastructural, developmental, real, “Micro and Macro” economists as may be connected to the budget proposal.
“While we await the probe by the senate committee, we hope the upper chamber will ensure that necessary steps to forestall re-occurrence of such impunity as well as punishing the perpetrators of this heinous act against Democracy and the Nigeria People is put in place.”
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While commending the leadership of the Senate for openness and transparency demonstrated so far, it alleged that the two different versions of the budget “thus confirming its being doctored discreetly to change certain parameters of the budget proposal following the slide in the global oil price and unattainable budget figures.
“That this is coming from a party that has sworn to bring change to our democracy leaves much to be desired and clearly sends a wrong signal to the electorate that voted for this party based on integrity,” the statement read in parts.
The Senate has said it will commence consideration of the 2016 budget on Wednesday, January 20. The consideration comes following the reading of a letter sent by Buhari to the National Assembly on Monday, January 18.
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