THE controversy over the missing links in the 2016 budget deepened on Monday, with claims and counter-claims emanating from the legislative and the executive arms of government.

 While the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, insisted that the proposal for Lagos-Calabar rail project was never included in the budget presented to the National Assembly by the president, Senate spokesman, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, accused the executive of deliberate blackmail.

 Senator Abdullahi said the Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, whose ministry was the source of the controversy over the Lagos-Calabar rail project, should either show proof of the proposal or resign.

He also stated that the National Assembly bent over backwards to pass a flawed budget, adding that the lawmakers had taken more than enough undue bashing.

 The Senate spokesman, who spoke on two different occasions on Monday, one through a statement and another interview, said the Presidency must come clean on the budget issue.

 He said the Presidency should stop engaging in “surreptitious campaigns of calumny against the Senate, in order to cover up its serial errors.”

 Senator Abdullahi said in the statement that the alleged removal of vital proposals by the president was a ruse.

 This came as the chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, however, said that the proposal for the Lagos-Calabar rail was submitted to his committee during budget defence sessions.

Ashafa, in a statement, said the Senate committee on and transport discovered a “floating” N54 billion  in the budget of Ministry of Transport and recommended that it be converted for execution of the project.

 The senator said though the project was not in the original budget document presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 22, 2015, the Minister of Transport, Amaechi, later requested before the committee that the Lagos-Calabar rail project be included in the budget.

 But Senator Sabi,  in the statement he issued on the budget saga, said the National  Assembly actually “bent backwards to wring a coherent document out of the excessively flawed and chaotic versions of the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly.”

 He stated: “While the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the National Assembly, a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed, it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of appropriation lies with the National Assembly.

 “If the Presidency expects us to return the budget proposal to them without any adjustment, then some people must be living in a different era and probably have not come to terms with democracy.

 “We make bold to say, however, that the said Lagos-Calabar rail project was not included in the budget proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Buhari and we challenge anyone who has any evidence to the contrary to present such to Nigerians.”

 He further said: “Since the beginning of the 2016 budget process, it is clear that the National Assembly has suffered all manners of falsehood, deliberate distortion of facts, and outright blackmail, deliberately aimed at poisoning the minds of the people against the institution of the National Assembly.

 “We have endured this with equanimity in the overall interest of Nigerians. Even when the original submission was surreptitiously swapped and we ended up having two versions of the budget, which was almost incomprehensible and heavily padded in a manner that betrays lack of coordination and gross incompetence, we refused to play to the gallery and instead helped the Executive to manage the hugely embarrassing situation it has brought upon itself; but enough is enough.

 “This latest antics of this particular Minister of Transportation, Amaechi, is reckless, uncalled for and dangerously divisive.

“Apart from setting the people of the Southern part of the country against their Northern compatriots, it potentially sets the people against their lawmakers from the concerned constituencies and sets the lawmakers against themselves. This manner of reprehensible mischief has no place in a democracy.

 “We, hereby, demand from Mr Amaechi, a publicly tendered apology, if he is not able to show evidence that the Lagos-Calabar road project was included in the budget. Otherwise, he should resign forthwith.

 “Finally, by the provision of Section 81 (4) (a) and (b) of the constitution, the president is allowed to sign the budget and kick-start the implementation of the other areas that constitute over 90 per cent of the budget, where there is agreement between both arms, even as we engage ourselves to resolve the contentious areas, if there were any.

 “We, therefore, maintain that even this contrived discrepancies are not sufficient excuse not to sign the budget into law.

 “We also urge President Buhari to sign the 2016 budget without any further delay.

 “For every additional day that the president withholds his assent from the bill, the hardship in the land, which is already becoming intolerable for the masse, gets even more complicated.”

 Senator Sabi, in another interview, said Nigerians should commend the National Assembly for being patriotic.

 He said: “We are Nigerians and we are representing Nigeria. It is our duty to appropriate and that is what we did by virtue of the constitution. One thing I will want to say is that all of us are aware the kind of budget that came. When it came, we have two versions; those two versions did they emanate from Nigerians or the National Assembly, it emanated from the executive.

 “At the end of the day, we came up with a budget that will affect overall  interest of Nigeria. If anything I want to believe that the National Assembly has been magnanimous and patriotic in the way we approached and handled this 2016 budget.

 Amaechi sent supplementary copy of ministry’s budget on Lagos-Calabar rail to us —Sen Ashafa

In his statement, Senator Ashafa, contradicted the position of Speaker, Honourable Dogara and the Senate spokesman on the alleged removal of the Lagos-Calabar rail line project from the 2016 budget.

 “I have carefully followed the news items making the rounds in relation to the budget presented to the National Assembly and what was defended by the Ministry of Transport before the Senate Committee on Land Transport, which I have the privilege of chairing. The focal points of controversy seem to be the Lagos to Calabar railway modernisation projects and the completion of the Idu-Kaduna rail line.

 “I confirm that the Lagos-Calabar rail line was not in the original document that was presented to the National Assembly by the executive. However, subsequently at the budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Land Transport, the Minister for Transport, Amaechi, did inform the committee of the omission of the Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation project and indeed, sent a supplementary copy of the ministry’s budget to the committee, which contained the said project.

 “The minister noted that the amount needed for the counterpart funding for both the Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation projects was in the sum of N120 billion, being N60 billion per project.

 “While the committee did not completely agree with all the changes made in the subsequent document, being fully aware of the critical importance of the rail sector to the development of our dear country, distinguished members of the Senate Committee on Land Transport keyed into the laudable (Lagos-Calabar  rail modernisation) project and found ways of appropriating funds for the project without exceeding the envelope provided for the ministry.

 “In so doing, the committee observed that the Lagos-Kano rail rehabilitation project had been allocated the sum of N52 billion as against the sum of N60 billion which the mnister requested as counterpart funding, while no allocation whatsoever was made for the Lagos-Calabar rail line.

 “Hence, the sum of N54 billion that was discovered by the Senate Committee on Land Transport to be floating in the budget of the Ministry of Transportation as presented by the executive was injected into augmenting the funds needed for counterpart funding of both projects (Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation), as at the time the committee defended its report before the Senate Committee on Appropriation.

 “The Lagos-Calabar rail modernisation project was, therefore, included in the Senate Committee on Land Transport’s recommendation to the Senate Committee on Appropriations,” Ashafa said.

 Presidency should substantiate claims with evidence —Dogara

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, described the claim by the Presidency that the lawmakers removed the Lagos-Calabar rail line project from the budget as “ barefaced lies.”

 Dogara, who tweeted several times on his handle, @speakerDogara, on Monday, to debunk the allegation, challenged the Presidency to substantiate the claim with evidence, if any at all, in order to put its records straight.

 According to Dogara, “who in the executive said so? Details of the Federal Ministry of Transport budget estimates are out there. Kindly review it and give me budget code.

 “Barefaced lies. Where is the existence of the provision of N60 billion for Coastal Rail line in the budget estimate?

 “The relevant question to ask is ‘was it provided for in the budget estimate sent to the National Assembly, the Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi doesn’t have any constitutional power to prepare a budget estimate and lay it before the National Assembly.

 “Who in the Presidency said so? The presidential spokesman or the Information Minister? Name the source,” he said further.

 Responding to a question whether he was saying that the Presidency was a mere beer parlour, where rumour strives, Dogara said “playing this North-South game is unhelpful. That is simply the goal of the planters of this fiction.

 “Nothing like Presidency Involved here, less it is a shameless falsehood meant to stir hatred, it is most despicable, absolute rubbish.

 “They are smart enough to demand for the evidence, let them publish it if they have any evidence if it is actually coming from the Presidency.”

 Also, the House of Representatives, on Monday, shed more light on the controversial Calabar-Lagos railway project, saying the project was brought through the back door by the Minister of Transportation, Chief Rotimi Ameachi.

 The House further stated that the document it worked on was the one presented to the joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

 The House, however, said if the president was not satisfied with the budget, he had every right to return it  to National Assembly with explanation, but that presently, the president had not officially communicated with the National Assembly.

 Briefing newsmen in Abuja, chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Abdulrazak Namdas, said “the presentation made by Mr President did not include the Calabar-Lagos railway.

 “We could not have removed what was not included in the budget; what was given to us does not include Calabar-Lagos railway. They want to smear our good image.

“It is on record that some people lost their jobs in the process of this budget. In the interest of this country, if we passed the budget and the president finds anything he does not like, he should return the budget to the National Assembly.

 “We received proposal for Calabar-Lagos railway project from the minister, not what the president presented to joint session of National Assembly.

 “Nobody in this country except the president has right to present budget to National  Assembly,” he stated.

 Budget not rejected by Buhari —Senator Ita Enang

But the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, said in an interview with newsmen in the National Assembly that the president had not withheld assent to the budget despite the controversies.

 Enang stated that media reports indicating that the budget had been rejected as misleading and untrue.

 He said President Buhari only sent  the budget to ministries, in order for him to get necessary feedback.

 Enang said: “The president gave each of the ministers, departments and agencies the opportunity to look at the details as submitted by the National Assembly. This is to enable him get opinion on the state of the budget to enable him take a decision. The exercise was conducted on Friday and it is ongoing by the different ministers and ministries.”

 He further said:  “The constitutional timeframe for Mr President’s receiving and considering the budget began last week Friday. The question has not arisen as to returning or otherwise.

 “But I want to say the best way we as liaison officers are handling this matter is to speak less and work more, creating interactions.

 “So, we will raise more interactions, consultations and engagements.

 “There is nothing for the country to worry about, because we do not want to have crisis between the executive and the legislature, and it would not arise; this is one government.”