ABUJA, SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 – Abdulmumin Jibrin, former chairman house of representatives committee on appropriations, says Yakubu Dogara, the speaker, begged the north east caucus of the lower chamber for forgiveness over his alleged role in padding the 2016 budget.
Speaking with journalists on Tuesday, Jibrin said the budget was marred with so many frauds that he did not know of.
“When a grievous allegation in this nature is raised, there are laid-down rules to investigate such issue; it should not be investigated internally,” he said.
“The speaker should step down for proper investigation. Nobody is hunting him, but he should step down for a committee to do its work and investigate the issue.
“The speaker begged us that we should forgive him. He also begged for the principal officers. He said that the House should forget what happened in the 2016 budget. But Hon. Sani Zoro told the speaker that the house will forgive him, but we have to accompany him to beg Nigerians.
“When he was begging, you could see the desperation on his face that he does not want to leave the seat. He loves the position of speaker so much.
“My question to him is; did he connive with the principal officers to steal the N40 billion? There are so many frauds in the budget that I did not even know until now. The speaker took four projects to his farm, including a fielder road.”
He added that he did not care if he was suspended, as he knew the risk he was taking.
But reacting to Jibrin’s statement, Abdulrazak Namdas, spokesman of the house, said the assertion by the former appropriations chairman is false.
Namdas explained that Dogara held the said meeting with leaders of the various caucuses of the house in the bid to find solutions for the country’s economic recession.
“The speaker decided to meet with leaders of all caucuses to discuss the way forward on the current recession and the way forward when the house resumes,” Namdas explained.
“The allegation the the speaker begged for forgiveness and members of northwest caucus passed a vote of no confidence on the chief whip Ado-Doguwa is not in anyway true. That the meeting was done in bad light is not true as well.
“Abdulmumin has made this allegations before, he has not said anything new. For him to allege that the car are meant to bribe members is not true. He has raised issue, so he should allow those people in charge do their job.”
The spokesman said if Jibrin had a problem, he should present it to the house by way of motion.
Other legislators who flanked Namdas at the address, Amed Mustapha and Ahmed Safana told journalists that out of 24 lawmakers from Kano, 21 signed vote of confidence on Dogara.
They added that in the northeast, the Gombe caucus had passed a 100 percent confidence on the speaker.
