Spokesperson of the Senate Unity Forum, Senator Kabir Marafa, has accused Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of allegedly creating controversies around the 2016 budget in order to blackmail President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Honestly speaking, if I am to comment on the controversy that has been trailing the 2016 budget in the Senate, I will say it is all the work of the fifth columnists there," he said according to PUNCH.

“We woke up one day and the Senate President just came and said there was no budget and that the budget was stolen, thereby embarrassing everybody. But the following day, the Speaker said his own was not stolen.

“Next, they said the budget is doctored; next, they said the budget is padded; next, they said there are discrepancies all over the place. We knew how they came into the leadership of the National Assembly or the Senate.

“Was it a coincidence that the issue of padding and everything just came up after the Supreme Court said go and face your trial?

“Suddenly, we started hearing that we cannot pass the budget as we promised, because there are discrepancies and so on and so forth.

“In a nutshell, all the noise about the budget is all about this issue of corruption trial or CCT trial. That is all; no more, no less.”