Budget padding scandal: Dogara, Jibrin in 7th House fraud claims

• As Finance Committee chair in 7th Assembly, Jibrin used front companies to collect funds without executing projects – House

• ‘The Projects have been compiled and will be referred to anti-graft agencies to establish why they were fully paid for and not executed’

• Dogara left a huge mess, allegations of money laundering as chairman of House Services committee in both 6th and 7th House – Jibrin

The House of Representatives on Tuesday accused the sacked Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin of unilaterally jacking up the 2016 budget by N250billion as well as inserting bogus projects in the budget, including projects in President Muhammadu Buhari’s home community of Daura and N4.1billion for projects in his constituency.

Reacting to allegations made against four principal officers of the House by Rep. Jibrin, the House further accused the Kano lawmaker of acts of misconduct, incompetence, immaturity, abuse of the budgetary process as well as the tendency and proclivity to blackmail colleagues and high government officials, and misuse and mishandling of sensitive government information.

Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Publicity, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas flanked by eight other lawmakers also said the House had received complaints about Jibrin’s activities when he was the chairman of House Finance Committee in the 7th National Assembly, which had potentials to embarrass the House.

“Investigations found that from 2011 – 2015 Hon. Abdulmumin domiciled with Hadejia – Jama’are River Basin Authority and few other MDAs some of the allocations meant for his former finance committee members. He was alleged to have aided the use of front companies that collected funds without executing most of the projects.

“The projects have been compiled and will be referred to the anti-graft agencies to establish why the projects were fully paid for and not executed, who collected the funds and why has Abdulmumin not raised any alarm about the non-execution of the projects even now?”, he said.

However in a swift reaction, Jibrin while reacting to the media briefing by Hon. Namdas, called for the reconvening of plenary to enable the House address the allegations he has made against the quartet as well as an independent investigation of the accusations against them.

While restating his allegation of corruption against the quartet and asserting that the House leadership was desperately looking ways to nail him, repeated that “I stand by my statement that they have grossly abused their offices and public trust. Can they look at me and say same?

“Is it true that you (Dogara) left a huge mess and allegations of money laundering against you as chairman, House Services both in the 6th and 7th House? Why have you refused to open up the financial dealings and details of internal budget of the House to your colleagues, honourable members?

“Why do you have problems with recovering the House immediately to allow for an independent investigation on the allegation?”, he added.

Speaking further at the media briefing, Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Publicity, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas said Jibrin abused his position as chairman as the leadership of the House discovered that the former chairman, appropriations committee, discreetly and clandestinely allocated monies for projects that are not clearly defined in the budget for the purposes of exploiting the ambiguities for personal gains.

He said that Jibrin’s desperation to ingratiate himself into the good books of the Presidency, he unilaterally entered into commitments on the structure of the budget without the knowledge of the National Assembly leadership, in the full knowledge, that he had no authority to do so, but dishonestly because he had no intentions of keeping to those commitments, having done the exact opposite in processing the budget details.

“Furthermore, he was found to be responsible for some bogus allocations in the budget for projects that have no locations and were apparently never meant to be executed.

“Hon. Jibrin’s mishandling of the 2016 budget process nearly fractured the otherwise cordial relationship between the executive and the legislature and   brought the National Assembly and the government to public ridicule.

“He was in the habit of collating, warehousing and manipulating sensitive information to blackmail people, sometimes apparently for pecuniary purposes.

“One clear example is the insertion of funds for the so called Muhammadu Buhari Film Village in his constituency in Kano State without the consent or solicitation of Mr. President.

“Again, it was found out that he was fond of inserting projects into prominent persons’ constituencies without their knowledge to curry favour and possibly use it as a means of blackmail against them when necessary.

“He did not stop there. Hon. Abdulmumin went about soliciting honourable members to nominate projects for him to help them include in the budget. When called upon to defend his actions as appropriations chairman, all he did was calling names of those members and the amount he helped include for them in the budget in an unsuccessful  bid to silence them”.

Furthermore, Namdas added that Jibrin had initially inflated the 2016 budget by adding an extra N250billion more to the total figure as against the total budgetted sum submitted by the President.

“This, the NASS leadership out rightly rejected as a form of financial recklessness and inability to appreciate the dwindling resources available to government necessitating that we act prudently. He was directed therefore to make even further cuts below Mr. Presidents total figure.

“He claimed in a Channels TV interview in April 2016, to have cited numerous projects in Mr. President’s home town of Daura, Katsina State without Mr. President’s solicitation or knowledge, in a desperate attempt to blackmail Mr. President as an answer and justification for allocation of N4.1 billion to his constituency”, the House stated.

While admitting that Jibrin mishandled the entire budget process, Namdas disclosed that “in accordance with the rules of the House, this matter will go to the committee on ethics and privileges where Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin will be afforded the opportunity of fair hearing”.