The Senate at its plenary session of Thursday, 4th May 2017 stated that the report of the Joint Committee on Appropriations and Finance on the 2017 Appropriation Bill would be laid before its Chambers on Tuesday, May 9th 2017.
The report which was scheduled to be presented at today’s plenary was deferred following the absence of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sen. Danjuma Goje (APC: Gombe). However, Sen. Goje had earlier informed the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu (PDP: Enugu) who presided over the session that he would be meeting with the House Committee on Appropriation to harmonize copies of the Bill.
Speaking on the anticipated report, Sen. Ekweremadu stated that the National Assembly was committed to ensuring timely passage of the 2017 Appropriation Bill and had taken into cognizance that the 2016 Appropriation Bill would elapse on May 5th 2017 as the National Assembly had passed the 2016 Budget on 5th May 2016.