Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, gave out $20,000 each to nine members of Appropriation Committee, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin alleged.
But, Speaker of House of Representatives denied the allegation by the former Chairman of Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, that he (Dogara) gave out $20,000 each to members of the appropriation committee where they accused Jibrin of single-handedly doctoring the 2016 budget.
Speaker who spoke through his Deputy Chief of Staff, CID Maduabum, said he did not at any time meet or hand over any money of any sort to any member of the appropriation committee.
He said, “my attention has been drawn to a statement issued by the disgraced and sacked former chairman of appropriation committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, wherein he falsely, recklessly and maliciously claimed that I distributed $20,000 to each member of the committee to address the media where they stated their grouse against him.”
However, Jibrin in a statement issue said that the Committee comprises 40 members but only nine members were induced by Speaker of House of Representatives to lie against him in the press.
He said: “All the accusations they leveled against me are not in any way different from the bunch of lies contained in the shameless statement released by Speaker Dogara and the 3 other principal officers through Hon Namdas which he has fully provided response to.
“First, only 9 out of the 40 appropriation committee members agreed to participate in such a dishonorable press conference after shamelessly collecting $20,000 each distributed to them two days ago at the Speaker’s residence by his Deputy Chief of staff Hon CID Maduabum.
“My same Deputy Hon Chris Azubogu (you will remember his history with Hon Hembe in the 7th Assembly) who was used to organize the press conference was clearly on camera almost crying at the press conference where I announced my resignation.
“It took a couple of minutes before I could calm him down, get him seated for me to commence the event.
“See attached documents showing his greedy demands for insertions of 111 projects into the budget which I turned down.
“You can imagine the pressure I went through. The 9 of them are a disgrace to their constituents.
“On the lies that I never conferred with committee members or excluded them, here is the fact.
“The members of appropriation committee were fully carried along except those periods that the Quartet of Speaker Dogara and others took away the entire secretariat from me.
“When the appropriation bill passes second reading and is referred to the appropriation committee, a meeting with standing committee chairmen, their deputies and principal officers is usually held to discuss the guidelines for the committee work.
“We held that meeting on Wednesday January 27th 2016 With Mr Speaker in attendance.
“(see attached for document showing agenda of meeting and guide lines provided to standing committees).
“The 40 members of the appropriation committee are grouped into sub-committees and allocated a number of standing committees to supervise.
“Their role is so important such that they must first agree with the report of the various standing committees they supervised before the report of such committees are considered, deliberated and adopted by the appropriation committee.
“The implication of that process is that every member participated and endorsed the reports.
“God so kind, the entire session was recorded publicly.
“I will release the videos so that my Hon colleagues and the general public will see videos of appropriation members in action.
“And the 9 members of the appropriation committee with short memory will be reminded.
“No report of a standing committee of the house was received without the approval of members of appropriation committee.
“It is also a blatant lie that I disappeared. I was always at home since we were on a short break.
“Even more shocking is the fact that my Deputy Hon Chris Azubogu who was regularly at my home during that period can go on national TV for a price of $20,000 to tell such shameful lies.
Well, CCTV don’t tell lies.
“The period that my colleagues didn’t see me was the two occasions that Speaker Dogara and the others took away my secretariat.
“At least, now you know that your budget was with Mr Speaker not me.
“Again they tried to drag the entire house and body of principal officers into this matter.
“I have stated categorically clear several times that my allegations are not against the House as an institution or the entire body of principal officers but specifically on Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor and few other members.
“On the issue of pressure by members against me, I have explained that countless times.