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By Soni Daniel

The Federal Government has said yesterday it made no provision in this year’s budget for the construction of a gatehouse for the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.

The Ministry of Budget and National Planning made the clarification in a statement made available to Vanguard last night and signed by the Media Adviser to the Minister, Mr. Akpandem James.

The ministry said it neither made a provision of N250 million in the current nor last year’s budget, as claimed by some reports now making the rounds.

The statement read:  “The attention of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning has been drawn to a series of misleading information circulating and being given prominence in the media regarding some purported provisions in the 2017 Budget proposals.

Ag Pres Osinbajo

“This development has been going on for some time now, the latest being the false statement to the effect that a provision of N250 million has been made for the construction of a Gate-house in the Vice President’s quarters. That information is completely false and unfounded.

“There was indeed no such provision even in the 2016 Budget of the Federal Government nor is there any such provision in the 2017 draft budget currently being deliberated upon by the National Assembly.

“It will be recalled that after the 2017 Budget proposals were submitted by the President to the National Assembly, the Ministry announced that the proposals would be put up on the websites of both the Ministry and the Budget Office. Details of the proposals are on both websites.

‘’Members of the public are, therefore, encouraged to check these details before repeating allegations, which may be completely false.’’

The statement said that given the weight of the allegations, the Director General of the Budget Office, Mr Ben Akabueze, will be addressing journalists on Thursday to give further corrections and explanations regarding the provisions of the 2017 Budget.