As investigation continues into the allegation of budget padding by
the leadership of House of Representatives, the National Working
Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday waded
into the crisis by quizzing the immediate past Chairman of the
Appropriation Committee, Hon. Abdulmunin Jibrin, who opened the can of
worms. Jibrin arrived the party’s national secretariat in Abuja by
2:30p.m. in a black Land Cruiser with registration number, BWA 768 AM,
and was quizzed for hours.
He had alleged that Speaker Yakubu Dogora; his deputy, Yusuf Lasun;
Majority Whip, Alhassan Doguwa and the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, padded
the 2016 budget with N20 billion.
The allegation has been a source of embarrassment to the National
Assembly and leadership of the party as the former appropriation
chairman was summoned to the national headquarters of the party in Abuja
to face the party’s disciplinary committee chaired by the Deputy
National Chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuiabu.
Other members of the committee that were at the meeting were the
National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni; National Treasurer, Bala Mohammed
Gwagwarwa; and National Vice Chairman (North-West), Inuwa Abdulkadir,
among others.
In his brief speech to the media after the closed door meeting,
Shuiabu said: “It is in respect of what is going on in the House of
Representatives, which you people know more than all of us. I asked him
to come and brief the party; honestly speaking, we never thought it
would be covered by the media. “I that summoned him, the national
secretary of the party and the national vice chairman of his zone sat
down to discuss it.
There is nothing like passing any judgement on any member of the
party; we only play our role as the umpire in this matter to see how we
can create some atmosphere of peace and unity among our members. “I was
reading today in the papers that we called him to discipline him;
discipline him on what? Whatever happens in the House of Representatives
or the Senate under the constitution and their rules, they are immune.
“But when certain things go off hand, of course, the party needs to
call its members to know how best to unite, and that is exactly what we
have done.
“What we did actually was that we heard from him. We have heard
earlier from the speaker, but because it was not in the newspapers, like
you just went and published, nobody knew we held a meeting with the
speaker. “I want to say what we discussed honestly speaking was to get a
better brief because we have to be carried along. They are our members;
we should know from them directly what is really going on so that we
can see how we can handle the situation without necessarily making it a
town square dance.”
Speaking further on how to resolve the face-off, Shuiabu said: “We
are discussing with them and it is an ongoing consultation, we are not
done with them we sat with the speaker, we just finished sitting with
him and we would continue to sit with him.” Jibrin, who did not speak to
the media while leaving the secretariat, had earlier stated at
Shuiabu’s office that he was at the secretariat on the invitation of the
party leadership.
He said: “I am here on the invitation of our great party, the APC. We
discussed extensively on the crisis in the House of Representatives. We
will continue to discuss and engage ourselves. I will continue to
honour the invitation of our party and I am sure that whatever it is we
decide, you will know in due course.”
Jibrin had petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offence
Commission (ICPC), the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and other
government agencies on the padding of the 2016 budget. It would be
recalled that a chieftain of the party and Deputy National Publicity
Secretary, Comrade Timi Frank, had over the weekend called for the
resignation of the NWC over its inability to resolve the crisis in the
House of Representatives.
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