By The last of the budget padding saga involving the former chairman of the appropriations committee, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin and the leadership of the House of Representatives may not have been heard, as the lawmaker has written the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), seeking, among other things, forgiveness of the party for the role he played in the election of Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
According to him, his latest letter is geared towards furnishing the party with the details of the allegations against Speaker Dogara and the other 12 principal officers.
In a letter addressed to the APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, dated August 12, 2016, Hon. Jibrin insisted that he committed no offense neither has he ever abused his office or corruptly enrich himself in the 5years he has spent in the House.
Jibrin said, “In a nutshell, it will be dangerous and potentially disastrous for the party to keep Speaker Yakubu Dogara on that seat. I wish to state that I deeply regret the role I played in the emergence of Yakubu Dogara as Speaker. I seek the understanding and forgiveness from you, our leaders and every member of the APC family that was hurt by my action. Thank God Almighty, I am young and energetic. I will be 40 on September 9th. I promise that moving forward, I will dedicate and completely commit myself to achieving the goals set out by the party. This case should serve as a lesson for everyone in the future.
“I have pledged maximum cooperation to the anti-corruption agencies and I will provide them with guide and assistance on how to unravel all these crime and theft against Nigerians.”
The lawmaker further recommended ways he thought the leadership of the APC cold prevail on the House so as to ensure that the current crisis and embarrassment is mitigated.
He called on the APC to among other things “direct Speaker Yakubu Dogara to reconvene the House and step down with other accused Principal Officers immediately to allow for internal and external investigation without interference so that sanity will return.
“Discuss on the possibility of returning the 100billion constituency component of the budget under any of our laws so that all stolen money can be returned particularly the 40billion naira and equitably distributed to all constituencies”
Just as he offered to identify all the toxic insertions by Speaker Dogara and the 12 others in the budget so that they can be removed even as he posited that “We have different laws under which that can be done”.
