The Presidency has called on the National Assembly to suspend its ongoing recess and attend to various requests by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The National Assembly was billed to proceed on holiday on Thursday but the lawmakers went on emergency recess on Tuesday following the siege on Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
One of the requests before the National Assembly is the one asking the lawmakers to vire funds in the 2018 Appropriation Act to fund the supplementary budgets of the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies for the conduct of the 2019 general elections.
Speaking to newsmen on Thursday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, warned that the delay would frustrate some organs of the government.
He said: “The executive – President and ministers – will keep working with the legislature with respect due their offices and persons, and keep working with them as legislators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who make laws for the executive to execute irrespective of their individual political decisions while leaving all options open for conciliation.
“We will be praying the legislature – the leadership and membership – to consider that there are many matters of very urgent nature which are pending before the legislature and unless (they are) considered, the functioning of certain institutions of the government will be hampered.
“If you recall, a lot of the funding for the 2018 budget was budgeted to come from some external sources. The request for approval to raise funds from these external sources is before the legislature and unless (it is) considered, it may hamper the level of implementation. Again, before the legislature proceeded on vacation, Mr President also laid before them the request for virement, this also will be affected.”
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