According to PremiumTimes, The hard and soft copies of the 2016 budget documents President Muhammadu Buhari handed over to the National Assembly on December 22, 2015 have been declared missing.
The Nigerian Senate was scheduled to commence deliberation on the proposed budget today. But Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, shocked lawmakers at a closed-door session, when he told them the budget documents had been stolen.
Sources said Ndume explained that 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 SSA 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. Sources said senators of the PDP accused the presidency of being behind the theft of the documents.
Some lawmakers told PREMIUM TIMES they are suspicious that the presidency might have colluded with the management of the National Assembly to quietly withdraw the documents after detecting some discrepancies in them.
Weeks after the budget was presented by Pres. Buhari, there were speculations that Mr. Buhari had withdrawn the documents to enable him to correct some discrepancies, a claim the presidency and the national planning ministry denied
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