Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara
Embattled former chairman Appropriation Committee of the House of
Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin has made more shocking revelation as
he continues to speak on the padded budget.
Jibrin has released a statement allegeding that Speaker of the
House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara bribed Appropriation Committee
members with $20,000.
The statement reads:
"All the accusations they leveled against me are not in any way
different from the bunch of lies contained in the shameless statement
released by Speaker Dogara and the 3 other principal officers through
Hon Namdas which I have fully provided response to. But to prove my
innocence, I have resolved that I will respond to any accusation or
allegation leveled against me, unlike the corrupt Speaker Dogara, who
rather than respond to the 25 allegations I leveled against him and
others, has resorted to use legal gimmicks to stall the allegations. Mr
Speaker, you cannot sweep such hefty allegations under the carpet. You
think Nigerians are not watching?
"First, only 9 out of the 40 appropriation committee members
agreed to participate in such a dishonorable press conference after
shamelessly collecting $20,000 each distributed to them two days ago at
the Speaker’s residence by his Deputy Chief of staff Hon CID Maduabum.
My same Deputy Hon Chris Azubogu (you will remember his history with Hon
Hembe in the 7th Assembly) who was used to organize the press
conference was clearly on camera almost crying at the press conference
where I announced my resignation. It took a couple of minutes before I
could calm him down, get him seated for me to commence the event. See
attached documents showing his greedy demands for insertions 111
projects into the budget which I turned down. You can imagine the
pressure I went through. The 9 of them are a disgrace to their
constituents.
"On the lies that I never conferred with committee members or
excluded them, here is the fact. The members of appropriation committee
were fully carried along except those periods that the Quartet of
Speaker Dogara and others took away the entire secretariat from me. When
the appropriation bill passes second reading and is referred to the
appropriation committee, a meeting with standing committee chairmen,
their deputies and principal officers is usually held to discuss the
guidelines for the committee work. We held that meeting on Wednesday
January 27th 2016 With Mr Speaker in attendance. (see attached for
document showing agenda of meeting and guide lines provided to standing
committees).
"The 40 members of the appropriation committee are grouped into
sub-committees and allocated a number of standing committees to
supervise. Their role is so important such that they must first agree
with the report of the various standing committees they supervised
before the report of such committees are considered, deliberated and
adopted by the appropriation committee. The implication of that process
is that every member participated and endorsed the reports. God so kind,
the entire session was recorded publicly. I will release the videos so
that my Hon colleagues and the general public will see videos of
appropriation members in action. And the 9 members of the appropriation
committee with short memory will be reminded.
"No report of a standing committee of the house was received
without the approval of members of appropriation committee. See attached
for document showing full list of members of appropriation committee,
distribution into sub committees, secretary of each subcommittee,
contacts and meeting rooms. Interestingly, the distribution and
allocations was done by this same Deputy chairman of mine! Where is his
honour?
"Again they tried to drag the entire house and body of
principal officers into this matter. I have stated categorically clear
several times that my allegations are not against the House as an
institution or the entire body of principal officers but specifically on
Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, Whip Alhassan Doguwa
and Minority Leader Leo Ogor and few other members.
"It is also a blatant lie that I disappeared. I was always at
home since we were on a short break. Even more shocking is the fact that
my Deputy Hon Chris Azubogu who was regularly at my home during that
period can go on national TV for a price of $20,000 to tell such
shameful lies. Well, CCTV don’t tell lies. The period that my colleagues
didn’t see me was the two occasions that Speaker Dogara and the others
took away my secretariat. At least, now you know that your budget was
with Mr Speaker not me.
"On the issue of pressure by members against me, I have
explained that countless times. Who can blame them when they do not have
the facts of the matter. All they know and hear is Hon Jibrin. This is
in addition to a well-orchestrated blackmail by Speaker Dogara and his
cohorts to spread false hood and effectively block me from briefing
members. The conspiracy of silence by the few committee chairmen who are
culprits didn’t help my case. Well, now the whole members are getting
to know what transpired.
The contradictions in all your statements are too much. Here
you are talking about sack. What do we believe after the Speaker first
admitted that I resigned? Again, on one hand you say Hon Jibrin padded
the budget, on the other hand you say nothing like padding in the entire
budget. Which do you want us to believe? Yes we have complete powers of
appropriation but the intention of the constitution is not to say you
should exercise that power in a senseless manner, okay?
"The mother of all contradiction, is when you said no breach
was committed so there must not be any external probe but internal. So
if there has been no breach what so ever in the budget process, why are
you accusing me of committing so many offence in that regard? And what
do you intend to probe internally?
"My dear colleagues, you all know me very well and my bluntness
and anti-corruption stance in the House. We will all die and meet our
God. Feel free to play politics but remember posterity will judge.
"I urge you all to join hands and do the Honourable thing by
asking Speaker Yakubu Dogara and the 3 other principal officers to
reconvene the House and step down with immediate effect to face
prosecution. They have all lost the moral grounds to call themselves
presiding and principal officers of the House. The more they cling on to
power, the further the image of the House will be battered.
"I wish to inform you that I have officially approached the
EFFC and the ICPC to come in and decisively deal with this matter and
other corruption cases in the House. Kindly note that the allegations
must be externally investigated.
"This is a defining moment for the House of Representatives. It will never be business as usual.
Thank you"
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