Budget padding: I won’t appear before Ethics c’ttee, Jibrin insists

Embattled former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, declared on Sunday in Abuja, that he will not appear before the House Ethics and Privileges Committee for breach of privileges and misconduct made against him in relation to his comments over the budget padding scandal rocking the House.

Addressing journalists on Sunday, Rep. Jibrin said he won’t appear before the committee because he doubts that the Rep. Ossai Nicholas Ossai-led committee would be impartial in handling its investigating into the allegation of abuse of privilege and misconduct made against him because of the stance already taken by the committee chairman.

Answering questions from reporters whether he will appear before the committee today (Monday), the lawmaker replied that “of course, I am not going before any ethics committee meeting. I am calling for an independent panel”.

Following the adoption of the motion sponsored by the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Rep. Emmanuel Orker-Jev on Wednesday, accusing Jibrin of breach of privilege and misconduct and the resolution to refer the allegations for probe to the ethics committee, the former Appropriations committee chairman had given conditions for his appearance before at the public hearing.

He demanded that the ethics committee hearing be made public and that the press, civil society organisations, organised labour, student unions and members of the bar be allowed to attend the public hearing.

His demand was acceded to on Friday when the Ethics committee Chairman, Rep. Ossai assured that the hearing will be conducted in public and open to journalists for coverage.

But at his press briefing on Sunday, Jibrin disclosed that based on his interface with the Ethics committee chairman, an agreement was reached that the assurances he gave that the public hearing will be held publicly be put down in writing when the committee invites him to appear before it.

Jibrin, however, said that he was surprised on receiving the invite from the committee, the letter didn’t contain the agreement that the public hearing will be public.

He therefore declared: “I don’t believe in the verbal assurances of the Ethics committee chairman that the hearing will be public because he failed to give such assurances in writing as agreed between us.

“So, on the day I am supposed to appear, the speaker can direct the sergeant-at-arms to lock out anyone from entering the National Assembly”.

Referring to his convictions of of the Ethics committee’s impartiality, Rep. Jibrin apart from accusing Rep. Ossai of making comments prejudicial to the investigation, added that some members of the committee had shown their partiality by wearing the “I stand with Dogara” mufflers during plenary on Wednesday, when the motion calling for his suspension was muted.

“I have responded to the letter of invitation from the chairman on Ethics and Privileges. l have also written Speaker Dogara expressing my opinion and position on the matter and Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) has written the speaker that the issue of my suspension is already a matter in court.

“I have spoken extensively on these letters and my position is in the public domain. I will only make emphasis on the fact that the privilege of a member doesn’t accord him or her immunity to being exposed if involved in corrupt practices and exposing budget fraud and corruption can never amount to misconduct”, Jibrin added.

While reiterating his demand for Dogara and the three other House principal officers to step down from their positions pending the conclusion of the budget padding probe, the lawmaker called on the Senate to rely on the doctrine of necessity to discharge the duties of the National Assembly until such a time when the House would’ve concluded the process of internal cleansing.

“We all know that the speaker blackmailed members to get support because of abundance of systemic corruption in the House that makes many members vulnerable and dependent.

“His plan is to ensure everybody goes down with him. That is why it is pertinent to conduct extensive background checks on members. With a proper background check, some members would never have found their way into the House in the first place”, he stated.

Concluding his briefing, Jibrin displayed evidences before journalists on how he alleged the quartet cornered N40 billion in the 2016 budget for constituency projects, including N10 billion fraudulent insertions made into the budget by them in connivance with some House committee chairmen.

When contacted, Rep. Ossai said: “The Nigerian constitution gives fair hearing to anybody being accused of a wrongdoing. Our rules also give fair hearing to any member on any matter. Jibrin has been given the opportunity to defend himself”.

“However, if he doesn’t want to appear before the ethics and privileges committee, that’s his business. But as far as we are concerned, he has been given fair hearing”.