Allegation Fictional, Scandalous, Untruth —Speaker
IMMEDIATE past chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, AbdumuminJibrin, has leveled a fresh allegation against the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, of directing the movement of “massive amount of money” from the accounts of the House.
Jibrin, who made the allegation in his Twitter handle on Saturday, called on security operatives to arrest the Speaker “before he steals everything.”
The Kano State-born lawmaker also alleged that Dogara was entangled in a multi-billion car contract scandal through “his fronts as chair of House Services,” calling on the speaker to explain his role.
But Dogara, responding in a series of Tweets, dismissed the allegation as “fictional and scandalous untruth,” because “no Kobo belonging to Nigerians has been misappropriated, stolen or lost.”
The two lawmakers had been locked in battle over alleged padding of the budget, just as efforts by the leadership of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) to prevent them from publicly commenting on the saga had failed.
Jibrin, who was responding to Dogara’s Tweets on the budget loading saga, dropped a new bombshell in which he also described the Speaker’s apologetic tone as a consequence of the heat turned on him.
“May be it is easier for Dogara to explain his role in the fraudulent multi- billion naira cars contract by his fronts as Chair of House services
“The same speaker who, few days ago, said padding is not an offence and he cannot be investigated. I guess it is the heat. It will only get worse.
“So that external and internal investigation and various reforms by the new Speaker can commence to restore the battered image of the House.
“His apology will make better sense if Speaker Dogara and the three others take further step to reconvene the House immediately and step aside,” Jibrin said.
The speaker, while commenting, reiterated that there was no “act of corruption” by him during or after the consideration of the budget estimates by the House.
While calling for patience on the saga, he said “the truth which will vindicate the innocent will unfold soon.”
“I swore an oath of allegiance to the constitution and would defend this with all of my heart.As an officer in the Temple of Justice, I owe unalloyed allegiance to the Judiciary and to all institutions of law enforcement.
“I am not above the law, and I would never imply that I cannot be investigated by security agencies or tried by our courts.I did not say or mean that I am above the law or that I am shielded by the law, or that I have immunity for any infractions on the law,” he said.
