BUDGET PADDING: JIBRIN FACES ONE YEAR SUSPENSION FROM REPS

The House of Representa­tives has bared its pangs on former Chairman, House Committee on Appro­priation, Hon. Abdulmumin Ji­brin (APC-Kano) by slamming a one-year suspension on him over his allegation that its lead­ership padded the 2016 Budget with N40 billion. During the period, the House directed Jibrin to keep away from the lower legislative chamber fo
r 180 legislative days because he failed to substanti­ate his allegations of the pad­ding of the 2016 budget against the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dog­ara and other principal officers of the House. Jibrin is also banned from appearing in the premises of the National Assembly during the period while no salaries or al­lowances will be paid to him.

The House further banned Jibrin from holding any posi­tion of responsibility during the lifespan of the current Nation­al Assembly. Its action followed the adoption of the report of the House Committee on Eth­ics and Privileges chaired by Hon. Nicholas Ossai at the ple­nary presided by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Sulaimon Yus­suf Lasun. According to the report, the committee found that Jibrin’s statements were “injurious, scandalous and denigrating” to the House as an institution. The committee said that Ji­brin’s statements had damaged the image of the members and subjected the House to public ridicule. It added that the action of Jibrin amounted to an infrac­tion of sections 21 and 24 of the House. Jibrin’s allegation had been largely targeted at Dogara and three other principal officers, whose resignation and prose­cution he had continued to de­mand. Dogara had announced shortly before the House went on a two- month recess, the re­moval of Jibrin in a speech he read in plenary on July 20, al­leging budget fraud and serial betrayal of trust. Upon resumption on Sep­tember 20, the House moved a motion the next day to have Jibrin probed for alleged­ly breaching the privileges of members. Hon. Emmanuel Orker-Jev, (APC-Benue) proposed tough sanctions against Jibrin for the damage his allegations have al­legedly wrought on the House. The House also demand­ed that Jibrin tender a writ­ten apology to the House upon serving out the period of his suspension. A few minutes after the House’s resolution, Jibrin in a letter titled: “Details and man­agement of running cost and other allowances of principal officers of the House,” dated 28th September 2016 and ad­dressed to the principal offic­ers and other members of the House, vowed to follow up on the anti-corruption crusade un­til justice is served.

--> He sent copies of the two-page letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Inspector-General of Police, the Director-General of Depart­ment of State Security (DSS), the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC), the Chairman of the Independ­ent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Chairman, Pres­idential Advisory Commit­tee against Corruption and the Clerks of the National Assem­bly and the House. Jibrin Said: “You will re­call that I have embarked on an anti-corruption crusade to expose systemic and individ­ual corruption in the House of Representatives and push for reforms that will wipe out corruption and ensure that the House conducts its affairs and management of its finances in a transparent and efficient way for the good of our country. “In the last few weeks I have raised several allegations of budget fraud, abuse of of­fice, public trust and corrup­tion against Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yussuf Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Doguwa, Minority Leader Leo Ogor and a few other members. “None of them responded to the allegations neither has any of them with the excep­tion of the House Leader hon­our the invitation or submit and clear his name before the secu­rity and anti-graft agencies. I will follow up on this case un­til justice is served. “Similarly, and in the spirit of opening up the affairs of the House for the Nigerian people, I released figures of the amount each of you received as running cost. None of you responded despite the gravity of the issue. This is an issue that Nigerians in their millions are calling on us to open up. I will take it for granted that you have all denied the allegations. “It is in view of the above and enforcing that I demand each of you to provide me and make public within 72 hours what you have received in mon­etary terms as running cost of your offices in your entire stay in the House of Representatives and details of how you spent it failure of which I will take nec­essary legal action to compel you to do so,” he said. To receive more updates from Frayokit News, kindly SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER or follow us on FACEBOOK and on TWITTER
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