Saraki Worked To Frustrate FG Budgets – Lai Mohammed

President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has accused Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, of frustrating the pace of government projects through deliberate delay of annual budgets of the government in the National Assembly.

Speaking in an interview,weekend, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, also described as fake news reports, penultimate Tuesday, of the siege to the home of the Senate President, saying nothing like that happened.

Lai Mohammed, who spoke to newsmen in Lagos on the impact of defections on the government, also dismissed claims by Saraki that he did not get any appointment in Buhari government and claims by Governor Aminu Tambuwal that his state was starved of Federal Government projects.

Mohammed said: “We have a National Assembly in which we had a clear majority in both houses but which treated the executive with contempt and which actually slowed down the work of government.

“In 2016, 2017 and 2018, our budgets were delayed. We can understand 2015 budget because we came in the middle of the year. But 2016, 2017, the earliest we got our budgets passed was June.

“Key appointments, nominations and confirmations for key organisations that could move the government forward like CBN andNDIC were delayed. Really, it couldn’t have been worse if the PDP had a majority in the National Assembly.

“The fundamental thing is that for us, it would have been better that they left a long time earlier because they have strangulated this government for too long. When you are now being betrayed by your party, it is more painful because we can’t fight back as much as we wanted to fight back.

“I just want to establish that the foundation of what you are seeing today was laid as far back as the day he became Senate President.”