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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