Budget padding: Aggrieved principal officers move against Gbajabiamila

Aggrieved principal officers of the House of Representatives on Tuesday accused the Majority Leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila of being the mole within the fold.

The lawmakers who met in Abuja, expressed displeasure over the public perception on the controversy, dismissed Gbajabiamila’s defence in the text circulated to members last week.

However, some fake documents in circulation and sighted by BusinessDay showed that several Constituency projects worth over N4 billion from Osun and Niger states were linked with the Majority Leader.

 

The pro-Dogara lawmakers also accused Gbajabiamila of spying and leaking vital information to the ousted chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin prior to the announcement of his sack on Thursday, 20th July 2016.

 

Meanwhile, lawmakers under the aegis of Transparency Group will on Wednesday meet in Abuja to fine-tune plans towards actualising the set objectives of the Group on the illegality allegedly perpetuated by some of the principal officers and Appropriations Committee.

 

The Group’s meeting scheduled which was scheduled for Monday was postponed to enable its members return from their Constituencies.

The Group had in a statement issued on Sunday claimed to have garnered 263 signatures from lawmakers for the impeachment of Speaker Yakubu Dogara, his Deputy, Yussuff Lasun; Ado Doguwa, Chief Whip and Leo Ogor, Minority Leader over the allegation on budget padding scandal.

 

According to reliable sources, the body of principal officers met outside the National Assembly complex on Tuesday evening, 18th July, 2016 where they resolved to announce Jibrin’s removal on Thursday, after which the House will proceed on annual recess.

 

The leaked information, he noted prompted Jibrin to notify the Speaker of his intention to step-down.

“We have taken time to investigate how Jibrin got to know of our decision and we have established beyond reasonable doubt that Gbajabiamila leaked the information to Jibrin,” the lawmaker stated.

 

The principal officers also questioned the rationale behind the exoneration of Gbajabiamila who got N2.8 billion worth of zonal constituency projects in the 2016 Appropriations Act, from the series of  petitions on the alleged ‘most corrupt members’, reeled out by Jibrin.

 

“Remember that Gbajabiamila was silent for most part of the controversy and only spoke after members started raising questions as to his stance.

“It is no longer news that Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin was removed from the appropriation committee for fraud-related issues. The public had expected a sane and sobering reaction and not this misadventure of a drowning man trying so desperately to tear down everything in his path to ‘self preservation.”

 

In a related development, Chike Okafor, chairman, House Committee on Health Services, on Tuesday challenged Jibrin to itemize projects fictitiously he inserted into his own constituency.

Okafor was one of the 10 most corrupt Chairmen of standing Committees who allegedly inserted 2,000 constituency projects worth N284 billion into the budget without the knowledge of their members.

 

The lawmaker (APC-Imo) who denied the allegation however argued that Jibrin’s resolve to implicate him following his hard stance to accommodate N1 billion cottage hospital project in favour of Bebeji/Kiru Federal constituency, into the health sector budget.

 

“I want to believe that the reason I was being mentioned by Jibrin was because I refused his demand that a N1 billion cottage hospital be diverted the police his constituency.

“He came to me saying that I should concede a N1 billion project to his constituency. I out rightly refused explaining to him that health allocation was inadequate in the first place.

“To the surprise of our joint Committees, we found a N500 million health project in Bebeji/Kiru Federal constituency that was not approved by us.

 

“The allocation for that project should if interest to Nigerians because Health allocation in the budget was not affected, so the question is where did he get the allocation for that project from.”

He explained further that: “Having duly considered the nature and sensitivity of the Health Ministry, we easily understood the need to sustain the budget proposal as submitted.

 

“The Honourable Minister for Health also communicated same to the Senate committee. So I challenge Jibrin and anyone who stands with him in this voyage to infamy, to scrutinize the health budget and check under my constituency Ehime Mbano/Ihitte Uboma/Obowo Federal constituency if there is any extraneous project added to my constituency.

 

“And of course I make bold to say the same for the two other committee chairmen oversighting the Health Ministry. It was within our purview to propose projects for our constituencies but we didn’t have to because we fully appreciate the prevailing realities and peculiarities of the health ministry,” Okafor explained.