Reps accuse minister of budget padding

Premium Times reports that the Reps spokesperson, Abdulrazak Namdas said Amaechi tried to smuggle in the Lagos-Calabar railway project after Buhari had presented the budget.

Namdas said “The item was brought for inclusion in the budget by Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, but was not included in the budget because only the president is allowed to present the budget before the National Assembly.

“The media is awash with story that the National Assembly has removed the Calabar- Lagos railway project from the budget.

“I want to make it very clear that we don’t have that in the presentation made by the President to the National Assembly, so we couldn’t have removed what was not even inserted in the first place.”

The lawmaker also said “It was the Minister of Transport that brought the Calabar- Lagos railway to be included in the budget.

“We want to state clearly that the budget is something that is proposed by the president; we do not receive budget from minister.

“So, for somebody to say we actually removed the Calabar-Lagos railway project from the budget, I think someone is trying to spoil our good image.

READ: Presidency, National Assembly trade blame over missing budget details

“We want to state again that all that was sent to the National Assembly from the supplementary budget and others had a smooth sail, and it is on record that some people lost their job because of this budget.”

President Buhari had on Monday, April 11, 2016, expressed his displeasure at the changes made to the 2016 budget by the National Assembly.

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