Embattled former Chairman of the House of Reps Committee on
Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has ignored his party, APC's directive to
stop issuing statement on his fight with Speaker Yakubu Dogara and 13 other
lawmakers.
In a statement he released this evening, Jibrin alleged that
two serving governors are working with some other politicians to give Dogara
soft landing on the alleged budget padding scandal. In the statement, Jibrin
says Dogara's face, cap, Agbada and even his shoes radiate corruption and abuse
of office. He alleged Dogara also receives 25million naira every month. Read
his statement below...
It has once again become necessary for me to make some
statements, clarifications and further revelations.
As you are aware, my party the APC has intervened in the
current crisis, following allegations of corruption, embezzlement and gross
abuse of office I leveled against Speaker Yakubu Dogara, three other principal
officers and 9 other members, of which none had responded to any.
As I said earlier, it is only the 13 members of the House
that are on trial not the House of Representative as an institution. 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. They have been running pillar to post and I keep wondering
what really do they have to hide or are afraid of since they are not Members of
the House.
The meeting with the party went very well and in all honesty
they were very objective and showed understanding. I told the party that I will
be part of any peaceful resolution EXCEPT on the criminal allegations I have
raised against Speaker Dogara and 12 others. On that, I told the party there is
no going back and further informed them that more revelations will be made once
investigation commences. I also informed the party that I will stand as witness
against them and provide every support that will help investigation and
prosecution of these 13 extremely corrupt members. The party wrote and asked
that Dogara and I should stop further public statements on this issue. I
respected the party and stopped further statement but kept a close watch on
what was going on. Of course I have my network everywhere.
After three days of careful observation and receiving
information from very patriotic Nigerians, I discovered a grand plan by the
group of two Governors and three former members designed to provide
soft-landing for Dogara and 12 others, 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, invade 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.
I have made it a duty to respond to all the allegations
against me. The latest they brought up this weekend has already been taken care
of in my soon-to-be-released memoir. But I have decided not to wait until my
birthday in September to release it. I will start releasing the memoir in
piecemeal any moment from now so that answers to their cheap blackmail,
including the junk and lies they peddle in the media, will be provided. While I
was determined to observe the ceasefire, Dogara and his group of few rogues
didn't. I called Sen Lawali 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. No body will blame me that I responded. Iam completely
convinced that the two Governors and three former members were already at work.
I know them like the palms of my hands, and I know how they operate. But
Almighty God is more than them.
I was shocked and dumbfounded when I saw the Speaker on
television saying padding is not an offense not because of the disgraceful
contradiction after clearly stating that I was "sacked" for padding
but I could not believe he could have the temerity to make such reckless,
insensitive, arrogant and fraudulent statement right within the sanctity of the
president's Presidential Villa, a place that symbolizes zero tolerance for
corruption. If you watched the Speaker on the screen talking, you can clearly
see that from his face, cap, Agbada, down to his shoes, it was a radiation of
corruption, dirty money, monumental fraud and abuse of office. It was
irritating to see such character around the corridors of power.
He didn't know that by that statement he has clearly
confirmed my allegation that he and 3 others connived with some committee
chairmen to insert into the budget over 2,000 items worth 284billion naira. No
wonder he refused to take action despite my complaint. Now that I have provided
evidence that he and 3 others masterminded the insertion of 40 billion naira
into the budget, another wasteful 20billion naira and attempt to force me to
insert another 30billion naira into the budget, padding is no longer an offense???!
So the Speaker is saying the nine roads he inserted into the budget which he
fraudulently sandwiched into 4 roads and inserted billions into that without
any design or costing is not an offense? Or the water project he hijacked from
the budget and took to his farm is not an offense? Or moving ten solar
boreholes to a place that probably requires just two is not an offense? This
has really proved that Speaker Dogara is the son, father, grand father and
great grand father of padding! Nigerians are watching!!!
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.
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 for 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. I heard the
chairman Hon Chike Okafor talking, trying to put defence on TV, and I simply
said truly looters have no shame in Nigeria. The Minister of Health Prof
Adewale is alive to testify and he knows the role I played to get the health
budget, atleast to an implementable shape.
All government and security agencies and top government
functionaries should be wary of the activities of these two governors and three
former members going round trying to blackmail the Senate and the Executive arm
of government in order to diffuse and neutralize the allegations that will
change the history of Nigerian parliament for good. 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 2 governors, 3 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.
Part of the grand plan is also to peg the blackmail on
religious line. Speaker Dogara forgot that it was me, a Muslim from North West
that spearheaded his election despite all the challenges I faced.
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.
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.
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.
God bless Nigeria.
Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin
APC-Kano
Kiru-Bebeji Federal Constituency
Kano
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