President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly ordered a comprehensive reshuffling of staff in the Budget Office as a result of the padding of the 2016 budget as well as the inconsistencies and errors therein.

The President is believed to have issued the directive as a result of the widespread criticisms from Nigerians over the state of the budget and the accompanying ridicule from naysayers and the opposition party- the Peoples Democratic Party.

The Presidency had, on February 6, revealed that a budget mafia planned to derail the plans of the federal government, by inflating the 2016 budget.

The mafia was alleged to have proposed a budget of N9.7tn for capital and overhead spending, excluding personnel cost, which was a far cry from the Presidency’s initial estimate of about N8tn.

The inflated figures, errors and inconsistencies in the budget has also delayed the passage of the document by the federal legislature.

Owing to these turn of events, President Buhari, on Monday, February 15, sacked Yahaya Gusau as the Director-General of the Budget Office and immediately replaced him with Tijjani Mohammed Abdullahi.

Punch Newspapers however, reports that the federal government will also extend the punitive measures to officials within the Budget Office.

A source was quoted to have said that Buhari had been properly briefed of the activities of government officials in the Budget Office who were described as ‘budget mafia’.

The source reportedly said that the Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, has been directed to implement the presidential directive of sacking some of those who belong to the budget mafia, and repost others from the Budget Office.

“The President is really angry over the discrepancies discovered in the 2016 budget. It has been confirmed that it was a clear case of sabotage. It was said to have been carried out by a budget mafia whose members are strongly enshrined in the office. The President’s decision is that the former Director-General should not be the only casualty in this matter.”

“He has ordered that the Budget Office should be purged. Many of the officials there will be sacked while others will be transferred to other places other than where they have already constituted themselves to a mafia.”