The controversy surrounding the whereabouts of the 2016 Budget proposal has taken a new dimension with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calling on the National Assembly to commerce impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari.
The party also demanded the resignation of two ministers, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor over their alleged complicity in the entire controversy as well as lack of capacity to fix the ailing economy.
Trouble started on Tuesday when Senate Leader, Ali Ndume told his colleagues in a closed-door meeting that both the soft and hard copies of the Budget document were missing in the National Assembly complex.
Several sources in the National Assembly however told Thinkers Newspaper on Tuesday night that the Budget document was not missing from the complex.
Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki cleared the air on Thursday, saying the document before the Senate did not contain the original figures read to the joint session of the National Assembly on December 22, 2015 by the President.
He accused the Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari, Ita Enang, of presenting to lawmakers an altered version of the 2016 Budget.
Saraki, said, “What he distributed is different from what was presented by Mr. President and we have resolved not to address any version until we receive the version presented by Mr. President”.
There were also rumours few weeks back, of the executive withdrawing the proposal to correct some inaccuracies but this was denied by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.
The PDP said in a statement signed by its acting national chairman, Uche Secondus, that its National Working Committee “rose from a meeting Thursday charging the National Assembly to commence impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari for the various constitutional breaches especially the submission of two versions of the 2006 budget”.
The party said the National Assembly should thoroughly investigate the “shameful act, including the distortion and banding of figures to accommodate their personal interest and ensure that appropriate sanctions is meted to whoever has a hand in the dubious action that has brought embarrassment to the legislative body”.
The party also asked the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, and Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, to resign “having failed to provide the much needed capacity in the management of the nation’s economy resulting in the embarrassing crashing of the nation’s currency to as low as N305 to a dollar”.
Also, the party asked the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to resign “for plunging the country’s currency policy into chaos an action that thrown investors into total confusion”.
“We sympathize with Nigerians who are seriously undergoing terrible hardship because of the now obvious inept leadership of APC despite the promise of one Naira to a dollar.
“What hope can a government that allows its currency to break a 43 year old record crashing to over N300 to one dollar offer and yet does not show it has clear focus of what to do,” the party said.
The party said that “APC government rather than address very grievous national issues created by its lack of capacity to govern has instead resorted to violation of peoples rights in the name of fighting corruption”.
