Budget Padding Scandal: Jibrin defies APC’s gag order, says two governors working to rescue Dogara
A
defiant former chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation,
Abdulmumin Jibrin, on Sunday said he had identified two governors
working to shield Speaker Yakubu Dogara from prosecution over the budget
padding scandal rocking the lower legislative chamber.
He also
vowed not to withdraw his corruption charges against the Speaker, saying
they were too grievous to be swept under the carpet.
Mr. Jibrin
returned with his attacks after briefly complying with a gag
order issued by the APC on Thursday —barely three days ago— indicating
that the fragile accord may have broken down.
Mr. Jibrin’s said a
tentative truce prevailing on all parties to restrain from further
engaging in “media war” had been breached by Mr. Dogara’s frequent
public utterances, adding that the Speaker and his supporters had
continued to disparaged him in the media.
Although Mr. Jibrin
largely complied with the order, refraining from personally commenting
on the scandal on Friday and Saturday, a group in the House, opposed to
the Speaker, issued a statement.
Transparency Group, which styled
itself as forum of 206 anti-corruption lawmakers, came down hard on Mr.
Dogara, levelling fraud charges against him and demanding his
resignation.
Mr. Jibrin had since July 21, a day after he was
removed as Chairman of House Committee on Appropriation, levelled
several allegations against Mr. Dogara and more than a dozen other
lawmakers, saying they fraudulently padded the budget to the tune of N40
billion.
Mr. Dogara and the lawmakers denied the allegations.
In
a lengthy statement he emailed to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday evening, Mr.
Jibrin said he had informed party leaders that he would not continue to
take the high road and watch Mr. Dogara ridicule the party’s resolution
by scaling up vicious political and media attacks against him, adding
that he had warned the party of the consequences of “keeping a sealed
lip” on the development.
“I called Sen. Lawal Shuaibu and
complained on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. He promised to reach the
Speaker. On Friday the Speaker spoke to the press after meeting the
president on the matter, and they launched a massive attack on me on
Saturday and today Sunday in the media, while the party is keeping a
sealed lip,” Mr. Jibrin said.
“Nobody will blame me that I responded.”
Although
Mr. Jibrin used his latest statement to debunk claims that his
allegations were against the executive or the National Assembly as a
whole — the House and the Senate— he nonetheless introduced new
characters into the battle.
The unnamed individuals, Mr. Jibrin
said, included two serving governors and three ex-lawmakers, who he said
were working hard at shielding Mr. Dogara and covering up the scandal.
Two governors, three ex-lawmakers as mercenaries
Mr.
Jibrin said a grand cover-up plan by Mr. Dogara; his deputy Yusuf
Lasun; House Whip Alhassan Doguwa; Minority Whip, Leo Ogor, and the nine
other lawmakers he had previously accused was being executed by a team
that allegedly included two governors and three lawmakers he said he
would name in earnest.
“Surprisingly, they have resorted to using
every tactics to narrow the allegations to only issue of padding, which
in itself is a grievous offense, ignoring tens of other criminal
allegations contained in my petition to the anti-corruption agencies. In
doing so, they mischievously expanded the scope of the culpability to
give an impression that the entire House, Senate and even the Executive
arm of government and some individuals outside NASS are on trial.
“This
is a wicked attempt to drag many institutions and individuals into the
matter to neutralize the issue, spread fear and sell the dummy that the
entire country will go down if this matter is dealt with decisively.
“This
is the biggest blackmail I have ever seen. Nigerians should know that
the whole agenda of this blackmail is being coordinated by a group of
five people, two serving governors and three former members of the
House. I will give their names in due course,” Mr. Jibrin said.
According
to Mr. Jibril, other activities the five individuals recently embarked
upon for Mr. Dogara and others included providing “soft-landing for
them, give them time to clean up the mess on their desk, destroy
whatever evidence in their possession and reach, spread money across
members to buy signature of vote of confidence, try to scare and drag as
many people as they can into this matter.”
Mr. Jibrin said the
individuals allegedly planned to carry out for Mr. Dogara the task of
invading “the party and top government officials and influential people
that have the ears of the president and try to change the media and
public narrative by embarking on very expensive media campaign to
discredit and attack my person with all manner of lies they can
concoct.”
‘New allegations, more insight’
Other than the
multi-billion naira fraud he said Mr. Dogara allegedly oversaw during
the budget vetting process, Mr. Jibrin said new evidence of hitherto
unknown sharp practices by the Speaker had been allegedly uncovered,
calling on anti-graft agencies to commence immediate investigation.
“Let
me make further revelations here. In addition to the allegations I
already made, the anti-corruption agencies should ask Speaker Dogara why
on earth he collects 25million naira every month just to spend it the
way he wants.
“They should also ask him to provide proof of how
he is funding his farm in Nasarawa State which was just few hectares six
months ago and now miraculously expands to about 100 hectares with new
buildings and state-of-the-art equipment worth millions as well as the
mansion he has suddenly built in Wuse II within six months,” Mr. Jibrin
said.
Mr. Jibrin reiterated his position that the Senate must be
absolved of any wrongdoing in the scandal, saying budgeting
responsibilities rested chiefly with the House.
“It will be
unfair to drag the Senate or senators into this matter. Everybody knows
that it is the House that has commanding powers over appropriation.
There is nothing in the senate appropriation committee secretariat, that
is why I requested the protection of only that of the House when I
heard Dogara was planning to destroy the computers and the hardware.
“The
Senate president was too busy then to even get involved. He was always
receiving what I later realized was skeletal briefing from the Speaker.
It is also a strong tradition of the National Assembly that in an event
of disagreement between standing committee of the Senate and the House,
that of the House supersedes.
“That was exactly what we did on
2016 budget except that of Health, where we adopted the report of the
Senate because the chairman House Committee on Health practically
converted the budget to his personal estate, moving massive amount of
money that made the whole exercise looked like a big joke,” Mr. Jibrin
said.
The ‘dangerous’ quintet
Mr. Jibrin said security
agencies and others concerned should be wary of the two governors and
three ex-lawmakers allegedly working to save Mr. Dogara because of their
bad tendencies, and offered suggestions about how they could be
contained.
“We may never have this kind of opportunity to deal
decisively with corruption in the House. We may never! If you observe
carefully, you will notice attempts last week to wickedly drag the
Senate, DSS, SGF and others into this matter. This is all orchestrated
by the group of two governors, three former members and Speaker Dogara
and his corrupt cabal.
“Nobody is in a better position than me to
know who the culprits are. The next time you see them in your offices
trying to blackmail you that these allegations will bring down the whole
country, report them to the police immediately. These allegations are
on Speaker Dogara and 12 others and will not in anyway bring down the
House, the Senate or the executive arm of government as they are
claiming in their widely spread propaganda,” Mr. Jibrin said.
Vote of confidence, death threats and the case for outside intervention
Mr.
Jibrin said he stood by his allegations that Mr. Dogara bribed
lawmakers to secure a vote of confidence in order to perpetuate himself
in office despite growing calls for his resignation. He also repeated
claims that his life was in danger, saying Mr. Dogara and others were
out to “kill” him because of their “vested interest.”
“It is a
fact that all the members that signed for Dogara’s vote of confidence
collected money in a shameful and disgraceful exercise, and despite that
the consensus remains the Speaker must step aside and face external
investigation,” he said.
“I believe Speaker Dogara, the 12 others
and some vested interest within and outside the House want to kill me. I
no longer feel safe. I have carefully followed their desperation to
suppress what will go down in history as the biggest corruption case in
Nigeria. I have prepared myself for any eventuality. I have spoken to my
mum and dad extensively during the weekend. I have prepared my family. I
have handed over a handwritten note and documents to a popular SAN, a
man of integrity and other persons that I believe will lay it bare even
if they succeed in killing me.”
In his parting shot, Mr. Jibrin
said former Nigerian leaders, elder statesmen and even foreign diplomats
should weigh in on the matter and mount pressure on Mr. Dogara to
reopen the House, saying he had been denied access to Mr. Buhari.
“Finally,
this cabal of two governors and three former members have blocked every
avenue that I can use to reach the President so that he can get a
different perspective on this issue. Iam therefore left with no choice
than to plead with all our former Heads of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon,
Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, Alh. Shehu Shagari, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida,
Chief Enest Shonekan, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan
and the diplomatic community, particularly Ambassador of the United
States of America, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, the German
and French Ambassadors and all well-meaning Nigerians to join in the
call on the corrupt and fraudulent Speaker Dogara and 3 others to
reconvene the House immediately, step aside and allow for a thorough
external investigation and also call on the anti-corruption agencies to
expedite action on investigation and commencement of prosecution in line
with the anti corruption stands of this government,” Mr. Jibrin said.
Mr.
Dogara’s spokesman, Turaki Hassan, did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES’
calls and text messages seeking comments for this story.
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