By; IYOKPO EGBODO, Abuja.
Former chairman of the House of Representatives committee on appropriations, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin wednesday declared that his ongoing anti graft war was intended to bring far reaching reforms in the National Assembly’s budgeting system.
The lawmaker made the disclosure to journalists after a meeting with the Presidential Advisory Committee on anti-Corrueption, led by Prof. Itse Sagay, noted that after the ongoing crusade, the National Assembly will never remain as it was anymore.
While insisting that Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara should resign over the alleged corrupt practices he had leveled against him, Jibrin said “I stand by my earlier call that he should resign as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“As you are aware, I got invitation from the presidential committee against corruption because I had earlier submitted a petition to them, they graciously granted my requests and we had a very fruitful meeting that lasted about four hours.
“I have taken them through all the allegations against Mr speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the Whip of the House and of course the Minority Leader and nine other members.
“It’s been a challenging six weeks and some of my colleagues that we share the same vision within the House of Representatives, we have remained resolute, we have remained focused, we would do all within the laws of our land to ensure that justice is served on these corrupt members of the house of representatives.
“But most importantly to ensure that a very comprehensive reform is carried out in the House of Representatives to clean up the budgeting system and to clean up the activities of the House.
“I keep saying this is beyond the House, the country would be the biggest beneficiary and the winner at the end of the day.
“It’s a committee and they have their terms of reference I don’t know what they are going to do but a lot of revelations were made, I also know that they are men of integrity and they have taken all my submissions and they asked a lot of questions to which I provided answers and I am sure that within the powers of what they can do they would take decisive actions.
“You called for the stepping down of Mr Speaker and after submitting these petitions do you still stand by that?
“We still stand by that given the gravity of the allegations against Speaker Dogara, Lasun and Leo Ogor for the fact they have not responded to any allegations and these allegations are specific allegations that is hard for anybody to deny.
“The leader of the House has submitted himself to the Police, the most important thing is that position has not changed but I want Nigerians to understand that the fighting, the whole thing is not about speaker Dogara, it’s about reforming the system of the house of representatives.
“In the case of Dogara I’m convinced beyond every reasonable doubt that He has lost every moral ground to continue to parade himself as the number 4 citizen of the country, because I know pretty well that he is corrupt, he has perpetuated a lot of fraud along side the three principal officers.
“If some Members of the House of Representatives or Nigerians feel okay that a corrupt person should continue to call himself the number four citizen of this country, so be it, I have done my own part of it, I have exposed corruption, I have submitted petitions to the anti-corruption agencies and I’ve done what is within my control and in the control of other members of the National Assembly that believes in this cause, we would continue to do all that we can to ensure that justice is served in Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun and of course Minority Leader Leo Ogor.
“The issues of allowances that I raised is a simple matter anybody who I have mentioned, I mentioned the 10 principal officers anybody who believes judiciously for the purpose he is meant for, is to come to say I have collected this amount but I have used it properly.
“If you can justify the utilisation and use it for the purpose that it is meant for and so it is up to the 10 principal officers cited as in the first instance as example I have given, I said come and tell the country if you have used it judiciously, if you have not you would face the law. That’s the point I don’t think anybody should drag the entire House to it. But if any member wants to make a sacrifice and come out and say this is what I have received and defend how I have spent it, it is fine and good for his own image, it is not proper to drag everyone into this”.
