Buhari raises concerns over 2018 budget irregularities - Newspaper review

macfranc007 June 21, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Adeola Opeyemi

The main headlines of the mainstream Nigerian newspapers for Thursday, June 21, are focused on the signing of the 208 budget by President Muhammadu Buhari as well as the concern raised by the president over the irregularities in the budget.

The Nation reports that President Muhammadu Buhari signed Budget 2018 into law — reluctantly.

The ceremony ought to have held in January as envisaged when the President submitted the proposals to the National Assembly on November 7, last year.

The lawmakers raised the total expenditure profile by N578 billion— from N8.6 trillion to N9.1 trillion.

The Nation Newspaper

The President said he signed the document because he had no choice going by the comprehensive alterations made by the lawmakers.

The Guardian reports that President Buhari raised concern over the National Assembly’s injection of strange projects and sundry irregularities into the 2018 budget.

At the event witnessed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and members of the National Assembly, Buhari accused the legislators, saying they “made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.”

The Guardian Newspaper

The Punch reports that the president lamented that the 2018 Appropriation Bill which he signed into law would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement because of the alterations members of the National Assembly effected on the document he submitted to them on November 7, 2017.

He accused the federal lawmakers of, among others, increasing the National Assembly budget from N125bn to N139.5bn, without any discussion with the Executive.

The Punch Newspaper

This Day reports that the presidency Wednesday, June 20, attributed the widespread killings in the country to the political enemies of President Muhammadu Buhari, saying they were the sponsors of the killing machines that have sent many Nigerians to their untimely graves.

According to the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, the president’s enemies resorted to the act to discredit his scorecard on security, which he said was one of the three-prong plank Buhari ascended the presidency.

This Day Newspaper

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He stressed that the killings across the country were being instigated and sponsored by the opposition to weaken the incumbent government as much as possible.

Vanguard reports that former governor of Benue state, Gabriel Suswam, has been arrested by Department of State Service (DSS) over an alleged connection with the killings in the state.

Vanguard Newspaper

He was invited by the agency on Tuesday over a petition by a high ranking politician, alleging that he (Suswam) was habouring Mr. Terwase Akwaza, a.k.a ‘Ghana’.

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