Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki, in response to a motion raised by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South) urging the upper chamber to investigate the alleged missing budget document, confirmed the debate. .

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, yesterday faulted media reports that the copy of the 2016 budget proposal presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to a joint session of the National Assembly was missing.

Following the controversy generated by the reported disappearance, Senate set up a special committee comprising chairmen of its committees on Appropriation as well as Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition led by Senator Danjuma Goje and Samuel Anyanwu to investigate circumstances leading to the reported disappearance of the document.

Anyanwu told journalists yesterday that the committee had interrogated key officers of the Senate and National Assembly but
refused to disclose the identities of those officers.

At the open plenary yesterday citing Order 42 which deals with Matters of Urgent Public Importance, Abaribe noted that senators had been inundated with calls from their constituents about the whereabouts of the budget document.
‎ 
Responding, Saraki said all the lawmakers were part of the decision to set up the committee. .

“I think they will come back to us by tomorrow and we will go into a closed session, and will be able to debate the report properly.”

Dogara, who presided over the plenary at the lower chamber, instructed the Clerk of the House, Mr. Mohammed Sani Omolori, to raise a copy of the budget proposal so that all the lawmakers could see it, wondering how the story emanated in the first place when none of the offices in which copies were kept was broken into and vandalised by unknown persons.

According to him: “In view of the rumours making the rounds, we have decided to display the budget in the full glare of the public because we felt we have to show that there is nothing like that. Mr. Clerk, please open it now and bring out the budget for all to see.

“As far as we are concerned, none of our offices was broken into. It is quite regretful that there was the story of the missing budget document on the social media. We plead that the next time around, you should please get across to those in custody of the documents before you go public with such story.”