The House of Representatives said it would conduct an internal probe into the eight-month tenure of its former chairman of the committee on appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, over allegations levelled against him by members and some government agencies, Daily Trust reports.
The House also said it would refer Jibrin to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt and Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over his handling of the 2016 budget and his stewardship as chairman of finance committee during the 7th Assembly.
The House said through its spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa), at a press conference in Abuja yesterday that Jibrin was responsible for the late passage of the 2016 budget as he made failed attempts to insert projects worth over N250 billion into the budget.
It said several government agencies had written to the House complaining about Jibrin’s demands before approving their budgets and ignoring members of the House, particularly those that served under him.
On the allegations by Jibrin that Speaker Yakubu Dogara’s hands were soiled in the insertion of projects worth billions of naira in the budget, the House challenged him to produce documents to that effect.
Namdas said Jibrin was removed “based on sundry acts of misconduct, incompetence, total disregard for his colleagues and abuse of the budgetary process, among others.”
He gave other reasons for Jibrin’s removal to include immaturity and lack of capacity to handle the office and that he was found not to be fit and proper person to hold such a sensitive office which exposes him to high officials of government at all levels.
“He [Jibrin] was in the habit of collating, warehousing and manipulating sensitive information to blackmail people sometimes apparently for pecuniary purposes.
“One clear example is the insertion of funds for the so-called Muhammadu Buhari Film Village in his Constituency in Kano State without the consent or solicitation of Mr. President. This has brought both Mr. President and the government to disrepute.”
However, in his reaction, Jibrin said instead of addressing the corruption allegations he raised against Dogara, his deputy, Yussuf Suleimon Lasun, chief whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa and minority leader, Leo Ogor, “they are busy accusing me of immaturity and some lame and ambitious stories and compendium of lies.”
“I have called the 4 of them very corrupt public officers. I stand by my statement that they have grossly abused their offices and public trust. Can they look at me and say same? I am glad I now have the opening that I so badly crave to expose corruption in the House. If you have anything on me, feel free and bring it on!”
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