Indications emerged on Monday that the Senate would expedite actions on the 2015 budget on resumption with the purpose of passing it before the Presidential election slated for March 28.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, who dropped the hint noted that the Senate would on resumption on Tuesday, prioritise work on the 2015 Appropriation Bill.

He explained that his colleagues would debate extensively on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper which was represented to the Senate shortly before the recess.

Enang said that the senate would first of all, agree on the crude oil benchmark upon which the budget would be based.

He also said the contentious Petroleum Industry Bill, and all other pending reports would be given adequate consideration and passage.

Enang stated that the red chamber would immediately go into action to tackle all the pending legislative matters, which it had proposed to work on before proceeding on recess in January 14.

He said, “We are going to prioritise the budget, the PIB and all the pending reports which the Senate had planned to consider before we went on recess to prepare for the elections.

“Now that the elections have been shifted, we are going to work on all of them before we go back for the rescheduled elections.”

He added that the report of investigation into the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment tragedy, would also be considered alongside other pending reports within the remaining part of the 7th Assembly.

The Chairman of the Panel that investigated the matter, Senator Atiku Bagudu, had submitted the report of the investigation to the Senate on May 28, 2014, but it was not considered un

til the Senate went on break to prepare for the general elections.

The delay in adopting the report has since provoked insinuations that the Senate might not consider the document because of the alleged strong connections of some of the key players in the recruitment exercise.

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