Senate Holds Emergency Plenary On Supplementary Budget, REC Nominees

The Senate on Monday convened an emergency plenary session to gazette the N2 trillion 2023 Supplementary Budget passed last Thursday.

Also, the Red Chamber gazetted the screening and confirmation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) nominees.

Naija News reports that without approving the votes and proceedings of last week Thursday, the passed supplementary budget and confirmed RECs are of no effect.

The usual plenary days of the Red Chamber are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, which align with its standing rules.

With the approval of the votes and proceedings of Thursday, a clean copy of the budget can be transmitted to Tinubu for assent.

The supplementary budget had controversial line items such as purchasing vehicles worth N1.5 billion and a presidential yacht at a staggering N5 billion.

Also, the REC nominees can now be sworn in and deployed to their respective states to commence work.

Tinubu Scheduled To Unveil 2024 Budget By Third Week Of November

President Bola Tinubu is set to deliver the 2024 Appropriation Bill during a joint session of the National Assembly in the third week of November 2023.

Reliable sources within the Presidency, who verified this information to The PUNCH correspondent, indicated that the President plans to present the document to lawmakers during the week commencing November 20, 2023, to uphold the budget implementation cycle from January to December, among other objectives.

Another source who confirmed the development said the 2024 appropriation, the largest so far, reflects the administration’s ambitions to finance the budget through a mix of savings from petroleum subsidy, which was scrapped in late May.