The Senate, after a rowdy closed session on Tuesday, said it would not revisit the 2016 budget it had passed, asking President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the document as transmitted to him.
The Senate spokesperson, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, who stated this while addressing journalists on what transpired at the closed session, said Buhari was free to send a supplementary budget to the National Assembly after signing the document.
The House, it was gathered, had yet to take a position on whether the National Assembly should veto the bill or not, if Buhari declines to sign the budget.But while the Senate was insisting on Buhari signing the budget, there were indications that the House of Representatives was awaiting the President’s explanations for not assenting to the 2016 Appropriation Bill as passed by the National Assembly.
The Senate spokesman said the upper chamber, during the closed session, resolved not to revisit the issue of the budget which had already been passed.
He said, “The Senate resolved at the close session that we have completed work on the 2016 budget and would not go back on what had been passed.”
The PUNCH had, on Monday, exclusively reported that the President had shunned an offer by the National Assembly that he should sign the budget as passed before sending a supplementary appropriation bill.
A top government official had, on Monday, explained why the President would not sign the budget in its present state.
“It is dangerous for the President to sign now and negotiate later. The lawmakers may turn round later to accuse him of non-implementation of the budget and begin the process of removing him from office,” he had said.
But the Senate spokesman stated that the lawmakers had agreed that Buhari should sign the document and then send a supplementary budget, which would include projects not appropriately captured by the legislature.
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