The sacked Chairman, House of Representatives Committee of Appropriation, Abdulmumini Jibrin is convinced that Speaker Yakubu Dogara cannot escape forever going to jail for alleged budget padding.
Jibrin who is currently on suspension from the House for alleging that Dogara and other Principal Officers of the House were involved in massive padding of the 2016 budget said in an interview in Abuja that at some point Dogara and his alleged collaborators “will be arrested and prosecuted” by the law enforcement agencies.
“I have no element of doubt that, at the end of this, Speaker Dogara will go to jail,” he emphasized at the interview to mark 100 days of his going public with the allegation.
Asked what has happened to all the petitions he submitted to the anti- graft agencies on the allegations, Jibrin said: “contrary to the thinking of some Nigerians, they have been carrying out their investigations.
“You might be surprised to know that like the DSS, how long they have been following up with judges before they eventually burst into their homes.
“So, I believe that we will get to that point. I am optimistic that we will get to a point where there will be a strike. They are doing their work; they have invited me severally, I have gone there and presented my case.
“They’ve interacted with me countless times and I know that investigations are on at the various stages. There have been massive discoveries. All the teams at the EFCC, ICPC and the AIG in charge of the investigations at the Police.
“I know they are doing their work and I have had a lot of assurances that we will get to the point where every Nigerian wants to see – where of course, Speaker Dogara and the remaining crooks in the House of Representatives will be arrested and prosecuted. I have no element of doubt that, at the end of this, Speaker Dogara will go to jail.”
He described his suspension for six months as reckless.
“I never thought that some members of the house would choose to act in a very reckless manner. I have never seen such impunity in my life because while I was dishing out the allegations, I had thought my colleagues would do the right thing which was to insist that the House should investigate the allegations and collaborate with the anti- graft agencies, the Nigerian Police and the Department of State Security (DSS) which had already commenced their investigation into the matter.
“This was what I anticipated. But to my surprise, when we resumed a motion was raised and it was referred to the Ethics Committee and my first impression was that it was referring the issue in its entirety to the Ethics Committee so that one could go there and discuss the allegations that were raised.
“But, on reading the order paper and the motion properly, I discovered that the only item they were taking there is that I breached the privileges of the House and the members. That was why I declined participation because it made no sense to me.”
He also likened his treatment by the house to someone shouting in the market square thief, thief, thief.
“Rather than the people following the track where the thief was running towards, they went and apprehended the person who raised the alarm and started beating him up. I find that very ridiculous and extremely rare. Obviously, the aim was to silence the man who blew the whistle. Personally, I have never seen where that has happened anywhere else in the world.”
Jibrin does also not believe that the house has learnt any lesson from his expose on its handling of this year’s budget.
He said: “With what I have seen happening, the whole process of forming a small group, inviting the Minister of Budget and Minister of Finance has started and that is where the whole problem on the process of appropriation starts.
“You form a small team, you agree on certain fundamentals, then you come back and try to impose it on the Chairman of Appropriations or Chairman of Finance. When he declines, he becomes an enemy and you start blackmailing him.
“I have heard that the Minister of Fiancé has been invited to brief one leadership; Minister of Budget and National Planning has been invited to brief another leadership. That is where the whole budget fraud and padding issue is negotiated. When they go there, there is nothing that is being discussed apart from personal interests.
“Oh, I have this contractor, I want you to pay him his money. Oh, put my project in the budget. They go there and commit the House at such meetings and when they commit the House, they come back, they try to impose it on the Chairman of Appropriations who has to now take the whole load on his head and his colleagues are not aware that this is what is going on.
“With what I have seen so far, I don’t think that the National Assembly has learnt its lessons. That is the pattern that Dogara has adopted.”
