Jibrin drags Dogara to Presidential Committee on anti-corruption

Ousted chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin on Monday has formally petitioned the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption over the alleged financial impropriety in the 2016 budget leveled against Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

The Committee chaired by Professor Itse Sagay was inaugurated in August 2015 to advise the present administration on the prosecution of the war against corruption and the implementation of required reforms in Nigeria’s criminal justice system and develop comprehensive interventions for achieving
recommended reforms.

In his latest statement, Jibrin who threatened to accord the committee “detail presentation on all the allegations that constitute Dogara-gate.”

The lawmaker also unveiled a grand plan to commence “briefing the diplomatic community and will in the next few days provide comprehensive briefing to the British High Commission and the American, French and German embassies.”

According to him, “the utterances of Speaker Dogara in the last few days like his public pronouncement that padding is not an offense has clearly confirmed my innocence. I have therefore petitioned the Public Complained Commission and National Human Right Commission to enforce and protect my fundamental human right. Though as Speaker, he has the powers to sack committee chairmen but that must be done with justice, fairness and a huge sense of responsibility

“Nigerians must be vigilant because Speaker Dogara is using his office to obstruct investigation and provide shield for himself and the other accused. He is also using his office to raise money with the massive withdrawal from the House account. I also heard from good authority that a close associate of him who is Chief Executive of a well known Federal Government Agencies has been approaching members with offer of money to support Speaker Dogara.

“Finally, I want to commend the patriotism of the Transparency, Integrity group and other members of the House for standing firm  for the truth and rejecting the fraudulent offers the corrupt Speaker Dogara and his criminal cabal

“We must all join hand to salvage the House from the grip of these corrupt and fraudulent elements. We must deal decisively with the Dogara-gate and bring it to an end without further delay,” Jibrin’s statement read.

Meanwhile, Ado Doguwa, Chief Whip who was one of the four principal officers accused in the budget padding scandal has threatened to drag Jibrin to Court inspite of the outcome of the House on resumption from recess in September 2016.

Doguwa who declared Jibrin’s moves as sheer cowardice and an act of escapism, argued that “Jibrin’s legal strategy is to deploy a judicial instrument to protect him against possible sanctions from the House over his baseless, malicious and fictitious allegations to scandalously defame and destroy our innocent personalities/integrity in the eyes of Nigerian public.

“He has also succeeded in deliberately subjecting the institution of the National Assembly to grievous disrepute and institutional damage, which apparently contravened our extant internal standing rules and specifically Section 24 and 33 of the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act.

“With this clear violation of our extant internal code of legislative conduct, which must attract legislative sanctions against Jibrin, Nigerians should know that all sorts of statements and pronouncements made by Jibrin were mere sham and misrepresentations of facts. He has lost out his campaign of calumny against the House of Reps. He has also lost out with the Executive arm of government and our great party, the APC.

“Having realized that he is already consumed, he is now resorting to the court options, which I believe he would lose out as well. Our respected judiciary would never fall victim of his misrepresentations and blackmail.

“I finally want to categorically state that whichever steps the House may take on Hon Jibrin on resumption in September, I Hon Alhassan Ado Doguwa would in my personal capacity definitely charge Hon Jibrin to court for slander.

“He has maligned and defamed my hard-earned reputation and integrity. He has also put to disrepute my hitherto sound/credible family name. No matter what the House decides on Jibrin, I will never sleep on my responsibility to defend/protect my good name and seek redress through our conventional courts,” Doguwa said in the statement.