Hon. Jibrin Promises to Continue Anti-Corruption Crusade

Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation who was suspended on Wednesday, says he will follow up his anti-corruption crusade against the house leadership until justice is served.

The lawmaker was on Wednesday suspended for 180 legislative days after failing to appear before the Ethics Committee over allegation of corruption he made against the leadership.

Speaker Dogara and others accused of wrongdoing had, however, denied the allegations.

Abdulmum, in a letter addressed to the principal officers and other members of the house, said he had begun a crusade to expose systemic and individual corruption in the House and push for reforms that would wipe out corruption.

The letter titled, made available to newsmen, was titled: “Details and management of running cost and other allowances of principal officers of the House.”

Copies of the 2-page letter were addressed to the Attorney General of the Federation, security and anti corruption agencies as well as clerks of the National Assembly.

“You will recall that I have embarked on an anti-corruption crusade to ensure that the House conducts its affairs and manage its finances in a transparent and efficient way for the good of our country. In the last few weeks I have raised several allegations of fraud, abuse of office, public trust and corruption” against some key officers and members of the house.

None of them responded to the allegations neither has any of them with the exception of the House Leader, honoured the invitation or submitted and cleared his name before the security and anti-graft agencies.

I n the spirit of opening up the affairs of the House for the Nigerian people, I released figures of the amount each of you received as running cost.

None of you responded despite the gravity of the issue. This is an issue that Nigerians in their millions are calling on us to open up.

It is in view of the above that I demand each of you to provide me and make public within 72 hours what you have received in monetary terms as running cost of your offices in your entire stay in the House of Representatives.

Failure (to respond) of which I will take necessary legal action to compel you to do so,” the  letter threatened.

Following the suspension, Jibrin also stated on Twitter:

Predictably Speaker Dogara ensured I was “suspended”.I wish to state that the suspension is unfounded as the entire process is flawed.

The so called suspension is ridiculous, a non issue, bunch of nonsense&completely inconsequential that cannot stand anywhere in the world

I have instructed my lawyer, Femi Falana SAN to file charges of contempt against Speaker Dogara and of course the House of Representatives.

Let me state very clearly that i will never ever apologise to anybody in the House of Reps. There is no reason what so ever to apologise!

I did not commit any offense. I did not abuse my office. For the five years I have served, I have never corruptedly enriched myself.

In contrast, these are the allegations that I raised against Mr Speaker and others which they have not responded till date.

The bad news for Speaker and his cabal is despite doing their worst and exhausted their bullets by “suspending” me, it has not in any way changed (the fact) that the Speaker conspired with others to commit monumental budget fraud and corruption.

I stand by all the allegations I raised. I wish to state categorically that there is chronic individual&systemic corruption in the House.

It is on strength of such weak institution that Speaker continue to flaunt a fake popularity in the House since many members are culprits.

In the next few days, I will provide prove of shocking systemic corruption in the House and how much the House stinks under Speaker Dogara.

I shall continue this struggle to expose corruption in the House, push for reforms and ensure that justice is served on Dogara and others.