Budget Padding Scandal: APC Summons Jibrin To Appear Before Disciplinary Panel

The All Progressives Congress on Monday fired a letter to Abdulmumuni Jibrin, a former chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation and member of the party, summoning him to appear before a disciplinary committee at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja not later than Tuesday afternoon.

In the letter, the ruling party said all attempts to reach Mr. Jibrin (who has remained underground for almost two weeks) by telephone calls and text messages were unsuccessful, leaving the party with no choice than to write to him.

In the letter, dated August 1, 2016, and signed by the party’s Deputy National Chairman for the Northern Zone, Lawal Shuaibu, the APC expressed cautioned Mr. Jibrin’s over his media campaign against the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, and other principal officers over allegation of budget fraud.

“To say the least, it is absolutely unacceptable to resort to media war as a means of settling scores without recourse to and/or exhausting the party’s internal dispute resolution mechanism,” the party said.

Mr. Jibrin was removed as chairman of the Appropriation Committee in controversial circumstances on July 20 on allegations of betrayal of trust.

The lawmaker fought back, embarking on a vicious media campaign to have Mr. Dogara; his deputy, Yusuf Lasun; House Whip, Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, removed from office. (Mr. Ogor is the only PDP member of the four.)

Mr. Jibrin’s campaign has seen him release details of how the passage of the 2016 budget was handled by lawmakers in a way that portrayed them as fraudulent.

On July 29, he disclosed that he had dispatched incriminating documents to the anti-graft agencies, who immediately swung into action.

By July 30, the State Security Service sealed the Appropriation Committee Secretariat in the White House Building of the National Assembly.

On Monday afternoon, Mr. Jibrin posted on his Twitter page that he had visited the EFCC, the ICPC, the SSS and police headquarters to personally submit petitions against Mr. Dogara and his colleagues.

In the APC’s letter to Mr. Jibrin, the party said the Kano lawmaker’s action underscored a blatant disregard for party supremacy and its existing dispute resolution mechanism, adding that it would work to ensure that it instilled discipline on all members.

“As a disciplined party, the constitution of our party has made adequate provisions on ways of resolving any issue among our members,” Mr. Shuaibu said. “It behoves on the party to take all necessary steps in order to ensure that no member of the Family brings dishonour to the party.”

The APC, therefore, reiterated its notice for Mr. Jibrin to appear before the party tomorrow, “urging” him to “be guided accordingly” as he digested the content of the letter.

“You are, therefore, by this invitation, expected to appear before the undersigned at the APC National Secretariat on Tuesday, 2nd August, 2016, at 2 p.m. Kindly note that failure to and/or refusal to honour this invitation will amount to a decision you have made not to submit to the party.”