The lingering crisis over the budget padding took a new dimension yesterday as Abdulmumin Jibrin, the former chairman House Committee on Appropriations, gave additional information on some shady dealings involving Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers.
Jibrin, in a statement titled: “The corrupt Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his 3-man cabal,” obtained by our Correspondent, specifically highlighted some of the corrupt-practices indulged in by the Speaker during the sixth and seventh Assembly and the need for Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to beam its searchlight on him.
Jibrin who described previous revelations as ‘tips of the iceberg’ assured Nigerians of his readiness to give further revelations on the underhand dealings of the Speaker and his allies.
According to him, Speaker Dogara and his senior cabal namely Deputy Speaker, Yussuff Lasun; Chief Whip, Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor have “promoted corruption so badly in the House that if President Muhammadu Buhari with his disdain for corruption and corrupt people have the slightest idea, he will ban the quartet permanently from the Villa before they eventually allow for proper and unbiased investigation by the House.
“Mr Speaker and Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun diverted millions of naira all in the name of paying for guest houses and official residence. The issue became so messy that the Deputy Speaker openly accused Hon Herman Hembe of short changing them of millions of naira in the deal to the shock of many honourable members.
“Speaker Yakubu Dogara frequently abuse his office amounting to conflict of interest by soliciting for inappropriate favours from agencies and Multinational companies. He forced an agency to grant loans and a construction company blackmailed to do some work at his Asokoro ‘plot.’
“Speaker Yakubu Dogara has carefully designed a scheme to scam Hon Members through deduction from their salaries certain amount of money for a so called mortgage arrangements to build houses for members. He has been applying every under hand tactics to ensure Members agree to the deal.
“Speaker Yakubu Dogara has consistently refused members access to the financial dealings and internal budget of the House. He runs the financial management of the House like a cult aided and abated by the Chairman House services Hon Babanlle Ila. It is no longer news that all over the House, honourable members are aware of the monumental fraud perpetrated by Speaker Yakubu Dogara in this regard.
“We are even told that this is a child’s play compared to the mess and allegations of money laundering he left behind as Chairman House Services in both the 6th and 7th Assembly. The EFCC should have something to start working with in respect to his tenure as Chairman House services if they properly dust their files.
“I am therefore once again calling on Hon Colleagues and well meaning Nigerians to prevail on Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his 3 other cohorts to put the interest of country first and allow the House to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations on them.
“This is just the tip of an ice bag. I will make further revelations in due course,” Jibrin pledged.
But in a swift reaction to the allegations, Abdulrasak Namdas, chairman House Committee on Media and Publicity vowed to “fully exposes the real reasons why the former chairman was removed,” last Thursday.
Johnson Agbonayinman (PDP-Edo), said the latest scandal was a distraction to the leadership of the House when it needed to fully concentrate on providing succour to Nigerians with the economy officially in recession and many finding it hard to survive as a result of this.”
“I don’t want the leadership of the House to be distracted. No human organisation is 100 percent perfectly run, the same thing with the House. I hope to reach out to speak with people on the issues raised. But for now, I urge that we put Nigerians first as there is so much hardship in the land, we should concentrate on making life easier for our people”, he said.
While reacting to the statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, that “National Assembly members are rogues and robbers”, Jide Olatunbosun (APC-Oyo), dissociated himself from such people.
“Baba’s statement is an over generalization. I won’t get to the National Assembly and soil my name. If there are bad eggs in any human organization, that doesn’t mean it’s everybody that is bad. I can vow for myself, so that allegation does not apply to me.
“I’m a professional before I got here, I have my reputation and cannot do anything to soil the names of my father. For some of us, we want this country to move forward in a positive way,” Olatunbosun said.
While reacting to the re-grouping of various interest groups, the lawmaker said: “When such a thing happens, there will be alignment and re-alignment. But I know as an institution, the House of Representatives will survive it. We have 360 members and you don’t expect everybody to take the same position, so if there are meetings going on, it’s not out of place but I’m not confirming it,” Olatunbosun told BusinessDay via a telephone chat.
