The National Assembly has extended the life cycle of the 2023 Supplementary Budget from June 30 to December 31, 2024.
The Red Chamber yesterday suspended all its rules and gave an expeditious passage to a Bill seeking the extension in less than 20 minutes.
The House of Representatives also yesterday, passed the 2023 Appropriation Act (Amendment) Bill 2024. The legislative chamber voted in support of all the clauses contained in the two Bills.
Earlier before the passage of the Bill, the lawmakers went into a closed-door session for two hours.
Before the House dissolved into a closed-door session, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas who presided over the session reminded his colleagues that the 2023 supplementary budget is about security.
In his contribution, House member, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa (APC-Kano), pleaded with his colleagues to pass the Bill; a demand that was outrightly rejected by the opposition lawmakers.
When it reconvened from its closed-door session, members voted in support of all the clauses contained in the two Bills.
Recall that in December 2023, both Chambers of the National Assembly extended the implementation period for the capital component of the Budget from December 31, 2023, to March 31, 2024, along with the N2.17 trillion 2023 Supplementary Budget passed in November 2023.
Earlier in March, following requests made by President Bola Tinubu, both the Senate and the House of Representatives extended the implementation period for the budgetary appropriations from March 31, 2024, to June 30, 2024.
With just four days remaining until the June 30, 2024, deadline for the affected 2023 budgetary appropriations, the two chambers cut short their recess to hold separate sessions for Thursday (today) to consider further extensions ahead of their previously set resumption date of July 2, 2024.
