Members of the National Assembly will resume plenary on Tuesday to consider the 2019 polls budget request pending in the two chambers of the federal parliament.
Already some members of the House of Representatives confirmed to one of our correspondents on Saturday that they had received notifications from the leadership of the House.
For instance, a member from Kogi State, Mr. Sunday Karimi, said, “Yes, I am aware. We have been notified officially.”
When the question was put to the deputy minority whip, she too confirmed that the notification had been received.
“We have received the information. It was circulated”, she added.
Meanwhile, senators contacted said they had yet to receive the notification for Tuesday’s resumption.
For instance Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central), said that he had yet to receive a notification to resume. He said, “I have yet to receive any notification.”
Also in response to a question as to whether she had received any form of notification for the resumption of plenary on Tuesday Olujimi said, “None at the moment, we will see how it shapes out.”
However, a senior member of the National Assembly bureaucracy who pleaded anonymity for fear of retribution explained the procedure for sending out notices to lawmakers.
He said “Such notices (to resume) are usually sent out to senators and members of the House of Representatives as the case may be, by the Clerk of the Senate or the House.
“They have the contacts of the lawmakers; they can only send out notices when directed by the Senate President and the Speaker in the case of the House. It is something that can be done in 48 or 24 hours depending on the emergency at hand.”
When contacted, the Special Adviser (Media) to the Senate President, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu said, “I don’t know. I have no information on the reconvening.”
The National Assembly is cutting short its annual recess to deliberate on the supplementary budget Buhari forwarded to members last month.
The request is largely to fund preparations for the 2019 polls by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The election budget going to INEC alone is N242.4billion.
