A former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, on Thursday asked the Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogora, and his Deputy, Hon. Yusuf Lasun, to resign over wasteful projects running into over N20 billion they allocated to their constituencies.
Jibrin also called on the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, and the Chief Whip to step down for their involvement in wasteful projects in the 2016 Budget.
Dogora had on Wednesday removed Jibirin as the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation over alleged budget padding.
However, Jibrin, in a statement said the crisis with the leadership of the House started when he refused to allocate N40 billion constituency projects for them in the budget out N100 billion meant for National Assembly.
He also alluded to his stand against immunity for the leadership of the National Assembly.
He said: “Speaker Dogara’s statement was a complete misrepresentation, false, mischievous, unfair and a calculated attempt to bring my name to disrepute, blackmail, silence and use me as a scape goat. The plan is to execute it just before the recess so that by the time we return I have been buried and the issue forgotten.
“Mr Speaker, this issue will never be swept under the carpet. We are closing for recess with it and we shall commence the next session with this issue. This was the last option they have after every attempt to find something to nail me failed. I am a very blunt person by nature. I don’t know how to pretend.
“I don’t do eye service neither will I ever be a sycophant. I don’t give returns. I just do my job dedicatedly. My offence was asserting my independence and insisting we do the right thing at all times and expose corrupt people in the house.
“Lately I openly disagreed with some principal officers on the issue of immunity and budget issues. I still maintained I will never support immunity. I strongly believe with every conviction that in cleaning up the budget system and considering what transpired during 2016 budget which I have all the facts documented, Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun, Whip Doguwa and minority Leader Leo Ogor should resign.
“These members of the body of Principal Officers were not comfortable with my independent disposition and my refusal to cover up their unilateral decision to allocate to themselves N40 billion out of the N100 billion allocated to the entire National Assembly. The four of them met and took that decision.
“In addition to billions of wasteful projects running over N20 billion they allocated to their constituencies. They must come out clean. My inability to admit into the budget almost N30 billion personal requests from mr speaker and the 3 other principal officers also became an issue. I wish I could but where will I get such money in a tight budget year like this? I have every documented evidence to this effect. After the submission of the first version of the budget which was returned by Mr President, I briefed members in executive session and told them as agreed at our pre budget meeting with chairmen and deputy chairmen of standing committees, we simply adopted their reports with little amendments. No body faulted my submission.
“Members insisted they must know how the N100 billion was allocated. I told them the truth. Since after that meeting, Mr Speaker with the suport of the three other principal officers effectively blocked me from briefing members, ensured I was not at the last executive session and refused to investigate issues I raised that I believe must be addressed if we intend to build a better budget system for the House.
“I worked within the rules of the house and instructions of mr speaker. During the budget period, Mr President graciously granted myself and Sen. Goje audience. It was a very good meeting. Speaker Dogara took it extremely personal that we saw the President without his knowledge and went on to scuttled all our efforts to help the president during the budget process because he wants to be seen by the president as the only good man. He forgot that he sees heads of MDA’s which he enjoys doing more than his job as speaker for reasons best known to him anyway, daily without mr president’s knowledge. That is how petty and narrow minded Dogara can be. A coward, hypocrite and pretender of the highest order.
“Mr President must be very careful with him. He wines with Mr President and dines with Mr President’s enemies. I am glad that I am finally free from his emotional blackmail of constantly trying to make me see my appointment as appropriation chairman as a favour. He has failed to realise that I came a long way and even attained Chairman Finance when he was Chairman House Services before this appointment.”
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