As the
squabble between the Executive and Legislative arm over the power of
appropriation rages, the House of Representatives yesterday said it unearthed a
“bogus
insertion” of N90 billion in the 2017 budgetary proposal presented by
President Muhammadu Buhari last December.
Its
spokesperson, Abdulrazak Namdas, told reporters yesterday in Abuja the
questionable sum was discovered in the estimates of the Ministry of Works,
Power and Housing.
He further
clarified the cut in the allocations for both the Second Niger Bridge and the
Lagos-Ibadan expressway in the appropriation bill which is at the heart of the
altercation between the minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola and the National
Assembly.
Faulting the
minister, who accused the lawmakers of altering the budget to satisfy their
selfish goals, he maintained that Sections 4, 59, 80, and 81 of the 1999
Constitution (as amended) vested in the National Assembly the power to
appropriate in line with the wishes of Nigerians.
Namdas, who
is also a member of the House Committee on Works, claimed that Fashola’s grudge
may not be unconnected with the decision to turn down two of his ministry’s
“bogus budgetary provisions under the guise of miscellaneous expenses and
environmental impact assessment (EIA).”
He went on:
“When I told the minister that they budgeted N17 billion for environment impact
assessment (EIA) in the Mambilla, we felt it was unjustified. We felt it was
bogus and uncalled for. He did not fault what I said. What he said was that it
was a misdirection and we should have called his attention.”
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