Former interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, yesterday upbraided the leadership of the Senate for alleged misplacement of the 2016 budget proposal submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He blamed the mishandling of the document on what he called the undisciplined process that produced the current leadership of the Senate.
Akande, who spoke with reporters at his Ila-Orangun country home during his 77th birthday, wondered how an important document as the budget could be so mishandled.
But the leadership of the Senate responded swiftly last night.
It said the former governor of Osun State was completely off the course on the issue as it did not say at any time that the document was missing.
It said what it told Nigerians was that two versions of the budget surfaced.
It accused Akande of eagerness to “latch on to any opportunity to bring to disrepute the leadership of the Senate because he failed to get his choice candidates elected.”
Akande had told reporters: “Our party, the All Progressives Congress, never planned to have the structure we have at the National Assembly.”
He said neither President Buhari nor the APC could be blamed for the ‘misplaced’ budget.
Spokesman for the Green Chamber, Senator Aliyu Abdullahi, urged Akande to “check his records properly so that he could see that at no time did the Senate say the 2016 budget was missing.”
He said: “We have said it several times that the budget was not missing. That two versions of the details of the budget exist and this is no longer in doubt as the Presidency has equally admitted this.
“We expect a man of Akande’s calibre to cross-check his facts and take us up on our words. That he decided to ignore the facts and make comments on speculations is regrettable.
“He is a man who had served in government. He is a leader of the party with the majority in the Senate and he has several channels of cross-checking facts as against speculations.”
Abdullahi added: “Contrary to the description of what happened as indiscipline on the part of the leadership, the position of the present Senate leadership is a demonstration of the regime of openness, transparency and accountability that now reigns in the upper legislative chamber. In the past such a development would have been swept under the carpet.
“The statement by Akande was another expression of the frustration that the former Governor of Osun State suffers for not being able to impose his lackeys on the Senate as leaders.
“Chief Akande is still sulking after his group’s failed attempt to impose certain individuals as the leaders of the Senate last year. “So, he was in a hurry to condemn the leadership. We want him to know that the leadership of the Senate can only emerge through the provisions of the constitution and the standing rules of the institution.
“As a democrat, Akande should know that once the majority has elected the leadership, all parties to the contest ought to accept the decision.”
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