Saraki Trying To Use 2016 Budget To Blackmail Mr President?

Spokesman of the anti-Bukola Saraki Senators known as Senate Unity Forum (SUF), Senator Kabir Marafa has alleged that the latest controversy trailing the 2016 budget proposal was pushed by the embattled Senate president to blackmail President Muhammadu Buhari.

There are also indications that there may be trouble at the Red Chamber during its plenary on Tuesday, as the senator has also warned against any attempt to suspend him.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Sunday, Marafa said with they aide of fifth columnists, the Saraki had been reechoing in the public, first that 2016 budget was missing and secondly that the budget had been padded and doctored and therefore can no longer be passed as earlier planned.

Marafa said, “Honestly speaking, if am to comment on the controversy that has been trailing the 2016 budget in the Senate, I will say it is all the work of the 5th columnists there. You remember we woke up after 15 days or also of the receipt of the budget in the National Assembly. We woke up one day and the Senate President just came and said there is no budget, that the budget is stolen embarrassing everybody, but the following day the Speaker said is not stolen our own is here.

“Next they said the budget is doctored, next they said the budget is padded, next they said there are discrepancies all over the place we knew how they came into the leadership of the National Assembly or the Senate. Was it a coincidence that the issue of padding and everything just came up after the supreme court said go and face your trial?

“Suddenly we started hearing that we cannot pass the budget as we promised because there are discrepancies and so on and so fort. In a nutshell, all the noise about the budget are all about this issue of [Saraki's] corruption trial or CCT trial; that is all, no more no less.”