Alleged budget padding: Dogara, others to appear before police investigative panel on Friday August 5th

The Nigeria Police Force have invited Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara, his deputy Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor to appear before a Special investigative panel set up by the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris, to probe the allegations of padding the 2016 budget leveled against them by sacked chairman of the House committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin.

They are to appear before the panel on Friday August 5th. The invitation comes following a petition submitted to the police against the Speaker and the three other principal officers by Jibrin.

The 5-man investigative panel is to be led by Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Amodu Ali. A police source who spoke to the Nation said

"We have commenced full investigation into the N284billion budget padding in the House of Representatives based on a petition from Hon. Jibrin. A Special Investigative Panel (SIP), with a crack detective, AIG Amodu Ali as the chairman, is the one saddled with the responsibility of looking into the allegations in the petition. The same Ali uncovered the lid on the $620,000 bribery scam in the House for which a former Chairman of the House Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management, Mallam Farouk Lawan, and the Clerk of the committee, Mr. Boniface Emenalo were indicted. The case is in court. You will recall that Ali was deeply involved in the investigation of the $180million Halliburton scam. So, the SIP is led by an officer who is tested. As I am talking to you (4pm yesterday), a letter of invitation has been addressed and sent to the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the Chief Whip and the Minority Leader. They will be interrogated by the SIP on Friday. As a prelude to the invitation of the principal officers, the SIP chairman and members had a session with Jibrin on Tuesday. It was not a grilling session. But Jibrin furnished the team with vital information and a heap of documents to back up the petition he submitted on Monday. We are going into the merit or otherwise of the petition on Friday by inviting Dogara and three others. It is going to be a gradual thing but we will crack the padding controversy.”

Meanwhile security has been beefed up around Jibrin by the Department of State Security DSS.

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Dogara, Gbajabiamila in fresh feud over House committee chairmen

Speaker of the the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and majority leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila appear to be in some sought of cold war over the recently released names of the Chairmen of the 96 committees of the house of representatives by Dogara on October 22nd.

In a letter dated October 20th, Gbajabiamila had written to Dogara accusing him of sidelining and undermining his office and the office of other principal officers in the appointment of the chairmen for the various committees. Gbajabiamila’s letter, dated October 20, reads in part;

“Honourable Speaker, I acknowledge your right and prerogative to determine the leadership of the House Committees and I intend to work with you after such determination has been made. I intend and have stated privately and publicly to work with you for the progress of the House. However, I am constrained at this point to ask that due consideration is given to the provision of our House Rules, Order 7 Rule 10 paragraph (a) which states that the Speaker shall in consultation with principal officers, appoint chairmen and deputy chairmen from among the members of the committees. On the role of the Majority/House Leader: Order 7 Rule 27 (2) c says that the Leader of the House shall ‘liaise with committee chairmen and other functionaries of the House’.”. Criticisms have continued to trail the sharing of the committees, where the ruling APC got 48, while the PDP got 46. APC lawmakers have been unequivocal in their displeasure over the number of committee, including those termed as “juicy” assigned to PDP members. An APC member, Sunday Adepoju who was announced as the Deputy Chairman of House Committee on Special Duties, only last week announced his resignation. According to him, he decided to resign so as to protest “the strengthening of PDP at the expense of my party, APC in the house."

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