The embattled former chairman of the House of Representative committee on appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin has formally filled petitions against the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, who he accused of ‘padding’ the 2016 appropriation bill by over N40billion.
JIbrin stormed the headquarters of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), at about 10:30am Monday, where he personally met with the chairman of the commission, Ekpo Nta and ideas were exchanged between both parties.
From there, the member of the House proceeded to the Department of State Service (DSS) and thereafter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), where journalists were asked to step outside of the reception area to avoid overcrowding.
Jibrin who has continually debunked being sacked as the chairman of the appropriation committee, rather, that he resigned from the position, is accusing the house leadership and some of its principal officers of institutional corruption, by attempting to input over N40billion into the appropriation bill.
Meanwhile, the Executive Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), Debo Adeniran has reiterated the Coalition’s call for diligent investigations and circumspection in handling the revelations from the allegations of Budget padding in the Federal House of Representatives.
Aderniran spoke against the background of the almost daily expansion in scope of the ongoing imbroglio over allegations of Budget padding allegedly perpetrated in the Green Chambers within the processes of evolving the 2016 National Budget.
“Since the former Chairman, Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin opened the can of worms over Budget padding in the 2016 Budget, the story has remained an expanding and developing one. The story has moved from allegations to counter-allegations, from public outcry for a probe to the emergence of a group within the House of Representatives called the Transparency Group agitating for same, from petitioning to law suits etc. Agencies like the Department of Security Services, DSS, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC are said to have been given the nod by President to perform their statutory roles in handling the disturbing episode.”
Adeniran however queried “how is it possible that the Executive and the Legislature combined did not detect this Budget padding before the Appropriation Bill was passed into law? Given that the reasons adduced for the delay in assenting the Bill to become Act were predicated on padding and procedural issues on two occasions, how come that in spite of the seeming ‘clinical scrutiny’ an ‘inclusion’ of as much as N40 billion could go unnoticed till now? If assume that the Green Chambers hatched the padding plan and implemented it, how come did the Red Chambers not notice the padding? Why do we have a bicameral parliament if not for the sake of checks and balances?”
“Equally, the Executive that presented the Bill could also be asked how it missed it out this padding, especially because it prepared? The ‘padders’ from this saga appear to smarter than the Executive and Legislature combined. This is why we call for circumspection in dealing with this; we believe it is only a thorough interrogation of the complexities, particularly the fundamentals to the background of the Budget padding story. That way, we as a country can decipher the means and ways of engaging the evil called corruption that bedevils our polity, to very objectively progress in the battle against the Frankenstein monster”.
