Allegation continues; Speaker gave appropriation committee members $20,000 says Jibrin

Jibrin.                                                  Dogara

Abdulmumin Jibrin, former chairman of house of rep. appropriation committee has accused Yakubu Dogara, speaker of house of rep. saying he (Dogara) gave each member of the appropriation committee $20,000 to lie against him.

According to Pulse Nigeria, Jibrin gave a statement in response to the press conference addressed by 9 members of 40-members appropriation committee of the house of rep. It says;

"All the accusations they levelled 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"

Credits to Pulseng.com