Some top officials of the National Assembly are now afraid over the revelation that they allegedly hijacked the budget sent in by President Muhammadu Buhari and distorted the fiscal document by allocating huge projects worth billions of Naira to themselves under the guise of working on it.
The affected lawmakers in the two chambers of the NASS, are said to be worried that the action they took to covert substantial amount of money in the budget, using the platform of Constituency Projects has hit the rocks with the refusal of the president to sign the budget without the details.
It was gathered that the House of Representatives has agreed to address some of the concerns raised by the executive arm of government in the budget while some of the controversial allocations included into the budget by the principal officers for their constituencies would be redirected to finance other critical national projects.
The revelation has however, split the NASS into two factions, with one backing President Buhari while the other, is opposed to him and his administration.
It was reported that the lawmakers proposed projects worth N1.6 billion each, leaving another level of committee men with N1.5 billion each and a general sum of N200 million for other members of the legislature. This plan backfired when loyalists of President Buhari, who were privy to the scheming of the powerful cabal alerted him of the plot and warned him against signing the budget.
Meanwhile, following a meeting between the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President Muhammadu Buhari over the controversy generated on the details contained in the 2016 budget, the House has now agreed to address some of the concerns raised by the executive arm of government in the budget.
