The Senate President, Bukola Saraki has revealed that two copies of the 2016 budget were received by the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

On Tuesday, Janauary 12, news of the loss of the 2016 budget generated a lot of reaction in the nation, as all and sundry sought to verify the truth behind such a strange news.

Furthermore, the Peoples Democratic Party accused the Federal Government of secretly stealing the budget so as to change certain figures after heavy backlash from the public when the details of the budget was made public.

On Thursday, Saraki shed more light on the missing budget issue, in a statement issued on his Facebook page.

The senate president did verify that the copy of the budget gotten from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters was different from the one President Muhammadu Buhari submitted to the Senate in December.

“Today, the Senate received the report of the ad hoc committee setup to investigate the claims of the ‪#‎MissingBudget2016‬. The report of the committee revealed that the Senate received two versions of the 2016 Appropriation Bill – one from President Muhammdu Buhari at the December 22nd, 2015 Joint Session of the National Assembly, and another from the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang.

“The Senate will only accept the version of the appropriation bill that was presented by the President.”

Adebayo Emuleomo