Jibrin Accuses Dogara Of $25,000 ‘Vote of Confidence’ Bribery

Despite the intervention of the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the crisis rocking the House of Representatives over the padding of the 2016 budget, a new allegation of $25,000 bribe-for-vote of confidence has surfaced. Former chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, yesterday accused Speaker Yakubu Dogara of bribing some members of the House with $25,000 each to sign vote of confidence register on him.

This is the second time Jibrin will be accusing the Speaker of bribing lawmakers to protect him in the budget scandal. Just last week, Jibrin accused 10 members of the Appropriation Committee of collecting $20,000 each from Speaker Dogora to rise against him (Jibrin). The lawmakers have all denied the allegation.

The lawmaker-turned whistle blower, who made the fresh allegation on his tweeter handle and a statement he made available to journalists in Abuja, explained that the money was for selected members to sign a vote of confidence on the speaker and three other principal officers accused of padding the budget. He alleged that the register was opened at the speaker’s guesthouse located on Wilberforce JutaCrescent in Asokoro District of Abuja.

According to Jibrin, “This disgraceful act was coordinated by Hon. Zakari Mohammed, Hon. Jagaba Adams Jagaba and Deputy Chief of Staff to Speaker, Hon. CID Maduabum. “It is a shame that Mr. Speaker has not responded to any of the allegations against him, but has resorted to look for fraudulent cover. “My stand on this is that the corrupt Speaker Dogara, Lasun, Doguwa and Ogor must listen to Nigerians, reconvene the House immediately and step aside.

“Investigation by antigraft agencies is already on and I pledge to support the investigation and prosecution of these corrupt public officers,” he said. The APC leaders had, on Tuesday, quizzed Jibrin over the budget crisis. Jibrin had accused Dogara, his deputy, Yusuf Lasun, majority leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa and minority leader, Leo Ogor, of illegally inserting and allocating projects worth over N20 billion to their constituencies in the 2016 Budget.

Responding to Jibrin’s allegations, Zakari Mohammed, in a statement titled “My hands are clean I did not share $25,000 to Reps”, denied sharing money and advised Jibrin to allow the law takes its course since Dogara and accused principal officers have indicated intention to prove their innocence before law enforcement authorities.

He said: “I wish to state clearly that I did not collect any bribe sum from the Speaker and I never shared $25,000 to any member of the House to seek support for the Speaker. I have rich and ethical antecedents by heritage, upbringing, education and societal moulding.

I have been living within my means, I have always discharged my duties without fear or favour and I have no cause to indulge in bribery. “I challenge Jibrin to come to equity with clean hands. Let him release any proof at his disposal to the public on the $25,000 bribery allegations.”

Zakari noted that: “As far as I am concerned, Jibrin is obsessed by his latter day anti-corruption paranoid. The so-called bribe-for-vote of confidence exists in his imagination. Once a member does not buy into his destruct agenda, such a person must be brought down.

“The Speaker and other principal officers have already offered their commitment to defend every allegation against them. There is no basis for bribefor- vote of confidence as alleged by Jibrin. Why can’t Jibrin allow the law to take its course on the allegations before the police and anti-graft agencies?” Also reacting, the deputy chief of staff to Dogara, Maduabum, denied involvement in any bribe sharing spree insisting that “Hon. Dogara Yakubu did not give me or anyone any money to give to any member of the House of Representatives.”

According to him, “This charge, as usual, exists in the imagination of the drowning Abdulmumin who is desperately grasping at every straw in his deception, campaign of calumny, demagoguery and propaganda which he has unleashed on innocent public officers whose sole offence is that they fatally misjudged Abdulmumin’s instability of character and unsuitability to hold public office.”

Maduabum explained that: “What Abdulmumin is saying is that billions of naira is being shared to members to pursue an inconsequential fellow? What an absurdity from a celebrated and pathological liar? “It is true that he loves mentioning my name, but is he so unintelligent not to notice a pattern.

Hon. Abonta disagrees with him on national television, he immediately adds his name in a petition to EFCC; Hon. Jagaba grants an interview against him, he adds his name in the charge sheet which he carries about.

The Appropriation Committee members disown him, he immediately alleges inducement of $20,000; the whole House rises against him, then immediately everyone is given $25,000 each.” Meanwhile, a member of the Transparency Group, Hon. Muhammadu Bala Farouk (APC/Niger) representing Kacha/ Gbako/Bida federal constituency has advised the All Progressives Congress (APC) not to interfere in the ongoing allegations, but allow the law enforcements to handle the case. Addressing the media yesterday at the National Assembly, Farouk confirmed that padding was rife in the National Assembly, adding that the Senate was also involved in the allegations of padding.

He said: “God has answered the prayers of Ni-gerians by opening their “yansh” for Nigerians to know the skeleton they have in their cupboards. So, the issue of padding is just a simple way of saying legislative robbery, legislative stealing in collaboration with executives from our various ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs). So, there is padding in our budget, which is illegal, unconstitutional, criminal. A lot of illegalities”.

Farouk noted that: “Even in the Senate, they are all part of this padding mess we are talking about. Some of us from the Transparency Group met with Dogara on this issue and we told him we are in a change era, so he should try and stop this idea of padding the budget.

We advised him and he gave us assurance that he would ensure that padding is eliminated in our budget process, but he didn’t. “So, we are also praying that the APC should not allow itself to be rubbished by this because in the past, the Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) was involved.

So, since the APC was elected on the crest of change by the people, it should allow the law to take its course.” On the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s description of National Assembly as corrupt, Farouk concurred, “most of us are criminals. Unless we change, we have a lot of evidences.” He explained that the Transparency Group is neither supporting Dogara nor Jibrin, but it stands for the truth.