2016 budget padding: Transparency Group begins signature collection against Dogara, others

Over 100 members of the House of Representatives who have constituted a pressure group, called Transparency Group on Wednesday called for external investigators into the alleged padding of the 2016 Appropriations bill leveled against Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

The Group specifically disassociated itself from the Press briefing organised by Abdulrasak Namdas, chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity in which he stated that the action of the Speaker was not criminal, stressing that the spokesperson of the Speaker and other accused principal officers should be left to clear their names.

The aggrieved lawmakers who spoke at press briefing at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, also urged relevant security agencies and anti-corruption agencies to probe all the parties mentioned in the scandal including staff of Appropriations Committee and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) involved in the budgetary process with the view to unravel and nip in the board their criminal tendencies.

Musa Soba (APC-Kaduna) who spoke on behalf of the Group specifically frowned at Speaker Dogara’s lackadaisical attitude towards the Group’s earlier demand to sack Jibrin who they accused of having overriding interest on the budget.

To this end, he disclosed that the group had earlier embarked on collection of signatures to protest against the passage of the budget without explaining the breakdown of the budget details before it was eventually passed through third reading.