BREAKING: Osinbajo Sends 135.6bln Naira Virement Request To National Assembly

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo wants the approval of the National Assembly to enable the executive draw from the 2017 budget.

The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, has forwarded a request to the the National Assembly for the approval of 1365.6 billion Naira virement to enable the government carry out what he called critical priority projects in the 2017 budget.

The document sent in on Thursday contains a breakdown of the amount requested for and ministries it was allocated to.

In the breakdown, the Federal ministry of Water Resources will get 2.3 billion Naira while the the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development gets 1.1 billion Naira.

Out of the sum, 241 million Naira was allocated to the Federal Ministry of Environment while 33 billion Naira was allocated to the Federal Minister of Transportation.

Power Works and Housing Ministries controlled by Mr Babatunde Fashola, will get 3.181 billion Naira while the Office of the National Security Adviser gets 5 billion Naira.

The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology was allocated 5.009 billion Naira while the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation was allocated 14.130 billion Naira.

Some other Ministries that will benefit from the virement request are Federal Ministry of Interior, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of defence.

In the conclusion of the request letter, Professor Osinbajo wrote: “In the light of the above, I implore you to urgently consider this virement proposal in order to support our collective efforts to improve the well-being of our citizens”.

It is the first virement request to draw funds from the 2017 Budget coming from the Acting President since he started coordinating the affairs of the Federal Government in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari who travelled to the UK for medical checkup on May 7.

Below are excerpts from the document.