{"id":10430,"date":"2016-07-28T08:38:49","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T08:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=10430"},"modified":"2016-07-28T08:43:23","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T08:43:23","slug":"group-wants-yakubu-dogara-others-to-resign-as-113-reps-demand-for-external-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=10430","title":{"rendered":"BUDGET PADDING: GROUP WANTS YAKUBU DOGARA, OTHERS TO RESIGN AS 113 REPS. DEMAND FOR EXTERNAL PROBE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<div>The Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group, NDEBUMOG has demanded the resignation of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and all the principal officers mentioned in the N40 billion budget padding scandal.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Below is NDEBUMOG statement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We at the Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group, NDEBUMOG, are worried over the shocking and scandalous revelations on Speaker Yakubu Dogara\u2019s involvement in the padding of the 2016 budget. It is shameful that such attempt to defraud the country of a whooping N40b through the manipulation of the budget could be contemplated by elected officers under a government that has promised to crush corruption and at a period the government has been complaining of dwindling revenues. It is a gross abuse of office and a betrayal of trust.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Hon. Addulmumin Jibrin, a lawmaker from Kano State and former House Committee chairman on Appropriation, had revealed that the speaker of the House of Representatives, HoRs, Hon Yakubu Dogara, colluded with his deputy, Yusuf Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Doguwa, and Minority Whip, Leo Ogor to allocate up to \u20a640 billion to themselves in the 2016 National Assembly budget.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Although the lawmakers have denied the allegations, saying Mr. Jibrin was expressing the scorn he felt after being sacked as chairman of Committee on Appropriation, we are of the view that such revelations, which have eroded the morality and integrity of the entire House of Representatives, should not be swept under the carpet. It should be thoroughly probed, and if the officers mentioned in the alleged scam are found culpable, they should be made to face the full wraths of the law. This is the only way the House of Reps could regain its trust and integrity.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<div>We commend Addulmumin Jubrin for these revelations, although his attempt to draw public sympathy from the revelations came rather too late. There is no doubt that he would have continued to conceal the atrocity, if not that he fell out of the favour of the speaker and other principal officers of the House.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Interestingly, reasons many Nigerians suspected over the years for the insistence of the National Assembly that the power to \u201cappropriate or re-appropriate\u201d on the National Budget is \u201ctheirs\u201d have now been confirmed by the Jibrin\u2019s revelations. They have argued always that they are appropriation lords; trying to bully and hack the Executive to allow them {the National Assembly Members} have their way at the detriment of millions of Nigerians just because they want to allocate public funds among themselves at will.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is not a secret that many Nigerians trust the Lower House (HoRs) more than the Senate. Unfortunately, such pro-poor trust is already at the risk of being lost, if majority of the members of the HoRs fail to come together immediately to remove all the principal officers mentioned in this messy affair. We wait to see how majority of the HoRs members, who are young Nigerians, would allow their \u201cpadded political loyalty\u201d flush-away their political future. The integrity of the entire House of Representatives is at stake, if the officers in question are not removed immediately for a thorough investigation.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Therefore, we demand that Speaker Yakubu Dogara and all the principal officers mentioned in the scandal should immediately resign, even if \u201ccollective interest\u201d of the parliamentarians\u2019, rallies around them in the opposite. Again, the scandal in question demands a thorough probe and the suspected accomplices cannot be the judges in their own case.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Nigerians should note possible remedial actions of the Political Parties that the actors in question represent and reward the parties accordingly with their votes, if the Political Parties that the actors represent fail to take necessary remedial actions aimed at deterring such inglorious acts in future.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><b>Signed<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>Dr. George-Hill Anthony<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>Executive Director<\/b><\/div>\n<p><code><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, there seems to be no let up to the 2016 budget scandal rocking the House of Representatives.<br \/>\nOver 100 members yesterday joined the fray, calling for \u201can external investigation with a view to finding out if our principal officers are guilty or not\u201d.<br \/>\nThey did not state if the probe should be by auditors or the Economic and <span id=\"IL_AD9\" class=\"IL_AD\">Financial Crimes<\/span> Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other <span id=\"IL_AD1\" class=\"IL_AD\">Related<\/span> Offences Commission (ICPC).<br \/>\nAlso yesterday, former Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon called for \u201cstiff penalty\u201d for anyone found guilty of the padding.<\/p>\n<p>Former Appropriations Committee chairman Abdulmumin Jibrin blew the lid on the scandal following his removal last week by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.<br \/>\nHe <span id=\"IL_AD2\" class=\"IL_AD\">accused<\/span> Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor of appropriating to themselves N40 billion of the N100 billion meant for the 360-member House.<br \/>\nDogara yesterday asked Jibrin to withdraw the allegation against him.<br \/>\nHe threatened to sue for defamation, if Jibrin <span id=\"IL_AD8\" class=\"IL_AD\">failed<\/span> to withdraw the claim.<br \/>\nJibrin vowed not to retract the claim, daring Dogara to go to court.<br \/>\nLast Monday, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said the scandal has vindicated his claim that the National Assembly stinks.<br \/>\nBriefing reporters in Abuja, the 113 representatives known as Transparency Group distanced themselves from Dogara and Jibrin.<\/p>\n<p><code><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p>The group asked Dogara, Lasun, Doguwa and Ogor to respond to the allegations against them as individuals.<br \/>\nIts spokesman Musa Soba (APC, Kaduna) said it was wrong for the Chairman, Committee on Media and <span id=\"IL_AD11\" class=\"IL_AD\">Public Affairs<\/span>, Abdulrazak Namdas to have claimed that the House was behind the Speaker on the issue.<br \/>\nAccording to Soba, who was joined by Abubakar Chika (APC, Niger), Baballe Bashir (APC, Kano), Bala Ikora (APC, Kaduna) and Lawal Yahaha (APC,Bauchi), the group had earlier complained about Dogara\u2019s indifference to its earlier demand at plenary to sack Jibrin who it accused of personalising the budget.<br \/>\nThe group wondered why the Speaker was shielding Jibrin before now.<br \/>\nClaiming that about 113 signatures were collected from lawmakers from the six geopolitical zones and across party lines before the last Sallah break, Soba said the intention was to compel the Speaker to explain the discrepancies in the budget.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cWe call for an external investigation into the matter with a view of finding out if our principal officers are guilty or not. For this group, we say the budget was padded and as such, the budget being a document that belongs to all Nigerians, it is no longer an internal affair. We urge the leadership of the House of Representatives to stop presenting the 2016 budget padding allegations as the problem of the entire House . Let those at the centre of the <span id=\"IL_AD3\" class=\"IL_AD\">controversy<\/span> answer to all the allegations made against them individually and collectively in line with legal practice and our <span id=\"IL_AD4\" class=\"IL_AD\">criminal justice system<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile we do not hold brief for Hon. Jibrin and we do not claim to be speaking for the entire House, we are of the view that Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas has no mandate of the Honourable House to speak on its behalf on the allegations made by Hon. Jibrin against some principal officers and presiding officers of the House (Speaker and Deputy speaker). The allegations against the officers mentioned were not allegations against the entire House but against the mentioned officers of the House in their individual capacity and as such, they can only speak for themselves through their respective spokespersons not through the spokesman of the entire House. Accordingly, we hereby dissociate ourselves from all statements made by Hon. Namdas in respect of the budget padding controversy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe history of the 2016 budget padding is not new because we have at different times raised this issue to alert Nigerians on the move by our presiding officers and some principal officers of the House to insert unnecessary and illegal projects into the Appropriation Bill with a view to taking advantage of their respective positions against the collective national interests. If Hon. Jibrin could be sacrificed as the Appropriation committee chairman due to complaints and allegations against him by the Honourable members of the house, it is hypocritical for anybody to insinuate that the presiding officers and principal officers are immune to such complaints, allegations and subsequent investigations. We condemn the 2016 budget padding and consider it as an abuse of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) as it relates to chapter 2 under the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is also an abuse of legislative ethics and privileges by the very individuals that are supposed to be the<span id=\"IL_AD5\" class=\"IL_AD\">custodians<\/span> of the laws of the land. Let those at the centre of the controversy answer to all the allegations made against them individually and collectively in line with legislative practice and our criminal justice system\u201d.<br \/>\nIn a letter written by his lawyer, Dogara claimed that Jibrin defamed him with his allegation.<br \/>\nThe letter reads: \u201cBy the said publication and without putting to the public any shred of evidence, our client is portrayed as a criminal, corrupt, <span id=\"IL_AD6\" class=\"IL_AD\">dishonest<\/span>, fraudulent, dishonourable and unfit to hold the position of Speaker of House of Representatives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur client\u2019s reputation has further been brought down in the estimation of right thinking members of the society and he has been thrown into public opprobrium, odium, scorn and ridicule. Consequently, we consider your publication on the matter as not only libellous but made in bad faith; an act of vendetta owing to your recent removal as the Chairman of House Committee on Appropriation. The said publication is also aimed at causing disaffection between Nigerians and members of the House of Representatives.<br \/>\n\u201cSequel to the above, we have to request you to submit immediately to us a clear and unqualified apology and retraction of the publication in an equally conspicuous position in all the print and <span id=\"IL_AD7\" class=\"IL_AD\">electronic media<\/span> where the publication appeared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTake notice that in the event of your failure\/refusal to comply with the above mentioned demands within seven (7) days of your <span id=\"IL_AD12\" class=\"IL_AD\">receipt<\/span> of this letter, we have further instructions to institute a suit against you in a court of law. If we have to pursue this course, we shall be claiming aggravated and exemplary damages\u201d.<br \/>\nResponding to the Speaker\u2019s threat via twitter, Jibrin described the speaker\u2019s action as predictable.<br \/>\nSaying he anticipated the Speaker\u2019s reaction, Jibrin vowed not to retract the allegations nor apologise.<br \/>\nHe said he was set to submit his petition to the the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC ) on the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Jibrin\u2019s Twitter handle reads: \u201cSpeaker Dogara has threatened legal action against me. Quite predicable. I know he will rush to court in order to invoke the <span id=\"IL_AD10\" class=\"IL_AD\">House rules<\/span> that matters in court cannot be heard on the floor. He failed to realise that the law is not intended to protect corrupt people. It is such a shame. I have responded to their allegations rather than respond to mine,he is rushing to court. I stand by my allegations and I will not withdraw them!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am happy to announce that my lawyers have officially approached the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) towards working out a date for me to personally submit my petition against Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun, Whip Doguwa and Minority Leader Ogor.<br \/>\n\u201cI believe once a date is agreed with the anti-corruption agencies we would have begun the process of making these characters pay for abusing their office\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Reps.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10431\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-10431\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Reps-300x185.jpg\" alt=\"Reps\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Reps-300x185.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Reps-128x80.jpg 128w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Reps.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><code><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group, NDEBUMOG has demanded the resignation of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara and all the principal officers mentioned in the N40 billion budget padding scandal. Below is NDEBUMOG statement. &#8220;We at the Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group, NDEBUMOG, are worried over the shocking and scandalous revelations on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[2510,2512,61,2514,2511,2513,244],"class_list":["post-10430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-addulmumin-jibrin","tag-budget-padding","tag-efcc","tag-george-hill-anthony","tag-housr-of-representatives","tag-ndebumog","tag-yakubu-dogara"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Reps.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-2Ie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10430"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10434,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10430\/revisions\/10434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}