Senate President Bukola Saraki has given a 24-hour ultimatum to 20 committees of the Upper Chamber to submit their reports to the Appropriation Committee.
The directive by the Senate President to the committees was part of efforts to ensure the speedy passage of the 2018 budget.
Senator Saraki, who gave the ultimatum at Thursday’s legislative proceedings at the Upper House of the National Assembly in Abuja, maintained that the committees cannot hold the Senate back on the issues of budget.
Those affected include committees on Defence, Army, Air Force, Navy, Industry, Federal Capital Territory, States and Local Government as well as Culture and Tourism.
Others are committees on Petroleum (Downstream), Petroleum (Upstream), Niger Delta, Sustainable Development Goals, Primary Health and Communicable Diseases, Health, and Power.
Since President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2018 Budget of N8.612trillion on November 7, 2017, the consideration of the proposal by both chambers of the National Assembly has been at the committee level since December 2017.
However, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, had revealed plans by the National Assembly to pass the 2018 budget on Tuesday, April 24.
Speaker Dogara, who disclose this to lawmakers at the Lower Chamber on March 21, also informed them that the budget would be laid before both chambers on Thursday, April 19.
According to him, the date for the passage of the budget was fixed by the Red and Green chambers.
