By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN—A member of the House of Representatives, Mr Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Minister of Budget and National Planning, over what he described as the numerous errors in the 2016 budget.

The lawmaker representing Egor/Ikpoba Okhai federal constituency of Edo State, however, assured that the National Assembly will give the Presidency the needed support to ensure that the budget was passed this month so as to boost the economy of the country.

File: Buhari during the 2016 budget presentation to the National Assembly.

He spoke to newsmen after participating in the ward congress of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in his ward, in the state.

He said: “Where you are using almost N800 million to update a website of the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals, to me, that is a monumental fraud and I told my colleagues in the House, though that has been rectified now and many other areas where we found so many errors.

“President Buhari has already sacked some people who were involved in this and he has also promised to sack more people. But the question is, what about the Minister who is supposed to be the one to do the right thing? You can’t be sacking junior officers when the head is still there. You must talk to the head who coordinated the budget for the President.

“It is a disgrace to the Head of the Ministry and it is a disappointment for the nation and I am happy that the president has done the right thing by correcting them. We must join hands with the president because if everything goes well in Nigeria, all of us will celebrate and rejoice. The president alone can’t solve the problems of Nigeria, it will require the effort of every good citizen of the country to move the nation forward. So, we must join Mr. President to see that Nigeria succeeds.

“I think the budget will see the light of day soon and Nigerians will celebrate. Many errors were discovered in the budget, I don’t think the president was responsible. The people he trusted disappointed him.”