Budget row: Group asks Dogara, Jibril to resign

Osun Positive Force (OPF) has called on the Speaker of the House of Representative, Hon Yakubu Dogara to accord himself path of honour and resign as Speaker immediately over the controversy surrounding the 2016 Appropriation Bill.

OPF also called for resignation of Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibril for manipulating the budget for his personal gain.

In a statement issued in Osogbo by its media director, Yinka Diamond, the group described the duo’s action as unpatriotic, sabotage, blatant abuse of privilege and precarious to the nation’s progress.

He said, “The action of the duo sharply negates the oath of their office which is to preserve the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy as contained in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“It is saddening that we have these people in such high office who only thinks about their personal gains at the expense of larger Nigerians.

“This shows the level at which our nation has degenerated for a person of Speaker to selfishly entrench his primordial interest over and above the country which he sworn to protect.

“Check revealed that most of the projects used in altering the content of the 2016 Budget were those in the constituency of Speaker Dogara, Honourable Jibril and their accomplices. Alone, Jibril included his constituency projects amounting to about N4.31 billion in the budget.

“No doubt, the Speaker Dogara is guilty for collaborating with Hon. Jibril to swindle Nigerians by altering the budget to smuggled-in fictitious projects. This is unacceptable and we demand an immediate resignation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and the removal of Jibril as Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation.”

President Muhammadu Buhari had not signed the 2016 Appropriation bill into law following the revelation of budget distortion by the National Assembly.

The National Assembly had removed entirely or reduced the costs of some of the key projects in the budget proposals, arbitrarily sneaked-in unbudgeted projects.