The speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has described reports that the 2016 Budget was missing, as an “incredible and award winning April fool stunt.”
President Muhammadu Buhari presented to the budget to the joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, December 22, 2015.
Yesterday, reports surfaced that both the hard and soft copy of the 2016 budget had gone missing in the National Assembly.
Reacting to the news, Dogara took to his Twitter handle to say it was a hoax as the documents are still intact.
He wrote: “1st April arrived too early this year on Twitter. 2016 Budget estimates stolen at NASS? Pretty funny stuff!
“It’s an incredible and award winning April fool stunt.
“I thought it was an unbelievable joke. I merely laughed when I first heard about it.”
According to him, the budget was in the custody of the Clerk to the House of Representatives.
He added that those hoping for the joke to be true will be disappointed today.
The BBC had reported alongside major Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday that Senators confirmed the budget was missing.
READ: Nigeria parliament ‘loses 2016 budget documents’
The Senate could not deliberate on the budget on Tuesday as planned due to the scandalous incident of the missing budget.
In another development, contrary to claims that the hard and soft copies of the 2016 budget documents were stolen from the National Assembly, President Buhari never submitted the documents in the first place emerging details revealed on late Tuesday evening.
REPORT | #MissingBudget: ‘Buhari Did Not Submit a Copy of the 2016 Budget to NASS’
A top source at the Nigerian Senate who did not want to be named disclosed to SIGNAL on Tuesday that if the said document was presented on the floor of the National Assembly, the original soft and hard copies of the document never made it to the leadership of the National Assembly.
Via Naij
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