EXCLUSIVE: Senate Clerk May Lose Job Over Stolen Budget

Clerk Of the National Assembly Salisu Maikasuwa, is on the verge of losing his job, for stealing the 2016 budget, and returning it to the Presidency, a source has told us.

News broke to the surprise of Nigerians earlier today, that the Senate could not find the 2016 Budget, when it was set to begin deliberations on it.

The Senate only just returned from recess, having delayed its initial date till 22 December to receive the budget from President Muhammadu Buhari.

Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, shocked lawmakers at a closed-door session, when he told them the budget documents had been spirited away.

It was learnt that deliberation on the budget could not begin until fresh copies of the documents were obtained from the Presidency, the Ministry of Finance or that of National Planning.

A source who spoke on the matter, confirmed that the Presidency when informed that the budget was missing, confirmed that plans were already underway to submit an updated version.

At the time of filing this report, the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges was in a meeting in which the Chairman declared that whoever was found guilty of removing the document, would not be spared.

Already, Maikasuwa’s name is being thrown about in the National Assembly ground, as the perpetuator of the crime.

One Senator who begged not to be mentioned, asked “What budget is Mr. President sending again? What is updated about it? Will this be an altogether new budget, or the one they stole from here?”

Another lawmaker said Maikasuwa would only be a fall guy for a bigger fish who had orchestrated the scheme with the clerk’s help.

Nigerians have quickly began to react to the news on social media and radio shows, with some describing the episode as “hilarious and extremely embarrassing”

There were reports during the Senate’s recess, that claimed that the Presidency had requested the budget be returned to it, claiming that it was hurriedly put together. However, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, refuted such claims, insisting that the budget was still with the National assembly.

With all the parties involved, the main question people are asking is who does the disappearance of the budget serve?

The disappearance of both soft and hard copies of the budget, appears to be a deliberate effort by someone to clean up a mess.

If there were obvious blunders in the budget, the someone may have removed it quickly to forestall the outcry that may result from exposing them to the public during deliberations.

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