The suspended former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has aligned himself with the scathing remarks of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on corruption in the National Assembly.
According to Jibrin, who left the country in the aftermath of his one year suspension from the House, the former president spoke with facts, adding, it has remained a huge scandal in the House, but nobody will talk because it is a system of ‘chop clean mouth’.
Obasanjo had described members of the National Assembly as ‘unarmed robbers’, to the consternation of members of the House of Representatives, who in return called him the ‘grandfather of corruption’.
It would be recalled that Jibrin had accused the leadership of the House, especially the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, his deputy, Lasun Yusuf, Chief Whip, Doguwa and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor of padding the 2016 budget to the tune of N40 billion.
He was however suspended by the House upon resumption from its annual recess in September over allegation of bringing the House into disrepute.
Reacting to Obasanjo’s remarks and the House response, Jibrin, in a statement on Friday, challenged the leadership of the House to open its books for scrutiny and also allow the public to know details of its controversial running cost.
The embattled lawmaker, who said, “I wish to state categorically that all what former President Obasanjo said is true”, doubted if House spokesman, Abdulrazaq Namdas’ statement was reflective of the opinion of the House members.
He said: “I have released to the public instances of budget fraud. I have provided sufficient evidence to the security and anti- graft agencies and I have indicated my readiness to stand as witness in case of prosecution.
“All they are trying to do in their usual style is to blackmail the executive arm to take responsibility for what is an obvious offence.
“All the anti- graft agencies need to do is to go and investigate only the 2015 SDG projects where about 10 billion naira was budgeted and see where that will lead them. It has remained a huge scandal in the House, but nobody will talk because it is a system of ‘chop clean mouth’”.
Faulting argument of insufficient allocation to the National Assembly, Jibrin said the House spokesman might not have enough facts at his disposal before making the statement.
“The problem is not that the money is insufficient to run the entire activities of the NASS. The truth of the matter is that about half the money is stolen in the name of running costs.
“The NASS has received about 1 trillion naira since 2006 and about 500 billion naira has gone directly into private pockets through the fraud called running costs.
“I have received briefing from my lawyers in London that such scams equal a crime against humanity and there are laws in America and Europe that allow the FBI and INTERPOL to deal with such cases at the international level, so that the culprits can be prosecuted.
“No member has access to copies of the internal budget of the House to see how the remaining money is spent after deducting the fraudulent running costs.
“The House should be ashamed of itself that it knows details of budget of the executive arm, including wage bill, but it cannot simply let the world know the details of its own budget.
“Nobody is saying the members do not need running costs for their offices; what we are saying is that the money is diverted directly into private pockets”, he alleged.
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