"The President should admit that there were avoidable errors in the budget and since he is human and not immune to errors, he should simply do the needful by presenting a new and credible budget to the National Assembly," Fayose said in a statement issued on Tuesday, by his Special Assistant on Pubic Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.
Governor Fayose described the revelation by the Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, that the proposal drawn up by the ministry and submitted to the budget office had been doctored and that "foreign" appropriations, different from what was submitted, had been sneaked in, as the height of national embarrassment.
"Last week, we were told that the Senate discovered a sum of N10 billion questionably smuggled into the budget of the Ministry of Education for an allegedly questionable subhead.
"Also, we were told of the existence of a budget mafia in the Presidency that was said to be responsible for the embarrassing allocations in the Budget. "Before now, we were told that a total of N3.87 billion was allocated for capital projects at the State House Clinic alone, over N700 million more than capital allocation to all the 16 federal teaching hospitals combined.
"Now, a whole minister has come out to say that budgetary provision for his ministry was forged!
"If under a President that says he is fighting corruption, the budget of the country got missing and we are now being told that the budget being considered by the National Assembly has been forged, one cannot but be afraid that there is possibility of Nigeria being forged one day, after the original must have gone missing," the statement read.
