Budget Padding: Jibrin petitions EFCC, ICPC, Says Dogara Must Be Probed

Embattled former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, yesterday, submitted a petition to the chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and allied matters Commission, ICPC, calling for the investigation of the speaker and three other principal officers for alleged illegal padding of the 2016 budget.

It was gathered that Jibrin arrived the premises of the ICPC in a convoy of three cars and was ushered into the office of the chairman with whom he had a closed-door meeting for about 20 minutes.

He was reportedly accompanied by about seven lawyers when he met with the chairman. He told reporters after submitting the petition:  “I am here to submit a formal petition and give further clarification and insight on the allegation of corruption, abuse of trust of office by Mr Speaker, Yakubu Dogara; his deputy, Yusuf Lasun; the Whip of the House, Alhassan Dogwa; Minority Leader of the House, Leo Ogor, and nine other members of the House who are also chairmen of different committees.

“We have submitted the petition, the chairman of the commission received us in person. We exchanged a couple of ideas on how to move forward. I hope to see a very quick commencement of investigations so that these corrupt set of Nigerians can be prosecuted in earnest and if found guilty, sent to jail immediately so that it will send a very powerful signal of the anti-corruption fight of this government.”

Meanwhile, journalists, who were at the headquarters of the EFCC, to follow up the petition by Jibrin to the commission against Dogara and others, were barred from the facility.

Earlier, the former appropriations committee chairman was at the  ICPC, and the Department of State Services, DSS, to file petitions against Dogara and others.