The Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on
Thursday said he would not engage his
former ally and House member from
Kano State, Abdulmumin Jibrin, in
political mudslinging.
Mr. Dogara was responding to a deluge
of requests from Nigerians online who
asked him to respond to allegations of
high-level corruption leveled by Mr.
Jibrin against him and other principal
officers.
Mr. Jibrin was sacked as chairman of
House Committee on Appropriation on
Wednesday.
In a lengthy statement Thursday, he
accused the speaker of attempting to
insert questionable projects worth N40
billion into the 2016 budget.
“I won’t respond to jokes. I’m not a
mud wrestler,” Mr. Dogara said in
response to a tweet from a Twitter
user, Comrade Abdallah, late Thursday.
He said he would no longer comment
on the matter in public.
“I owe a word on the subject to my
friends on this platform. The rest
would be dealt with by the Institution.”
Mr. Jibrin had on Thursday delivered a
blistering attack on Mr. Dogara, Deputy
Speaker Yusuf Lasun, House Whip,
Alhassan Doguwa, and Minority Whip
Leo Ogor, accusing them of treachery,
incompetence and corruption.
Mr. Jibrin called on the four to resign
their positions immediately, saying he
“can no longer bear the brunt of
abuses and baseless allegations keeping
quiet all in the name of
‘confidentiality’” expected of him.
Mr. Jibrin’s turbulent outburst came a day after he
was dismissed by Mr. Dogara, who said the
lawmaker representing Kano’s Kiru/Bebeji Federal
Constituency had committed serial betrayal of trust
reposed in him by his colleagues.
Mr. Dogara also said Mr. Jibrin was removed because
he abused his position as the chair of Appropriation
Committee and smuggled line items into the 2016
Appropriation Bill.
In a statement read on the floor of the House
Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Dogara said Mr. Jibrin
had earlier approached him to intimate him about
his decision to step down from the chairmanship
position.
“He met me and said he does not think he would
continue as the committee chairman due to pressure
of the work,” Mr. Dogara said.
But the notification came too late as the House
leadership had already concluded plans to remove
him from the position, Mr. Dogara said.
But in a lengthy tirade on Thursday, Mr. Jibrin tore
into Mr. Dogara, Mr. Lasun and Mr. Ogor, saying
their action was “a complete misrepresentation of
the facts, false, mischievous, unfair and a calculated
attempt to bring my name to disrepute, blackmail,
silence and use me as a scapegoat”.
Mr. Jibrin said Messrs. Dogara, Lasun and Ogor
began plotting against him when he thwarted their
attempt to “allocate to themselves 40 billion naira
out of the 100 billion allocated to the entire National
Assembly.”
Other allegations raised by Mr. Jibrin included how
the House leadership had been victimising him
because of his staunch opposition to any immunity
clause for lawmakers.
Mr. Jibrin also said Mr. Dogara had been plotting
against President Buhari, warning the president to
distance himself from the Speaker, saying he “wines
with Mr. President and dines with Mr. President’s
enemies”
In a swift response, the House leadership denied all
the “wild allegations” from Mr. Jibrin in their
entirety.
Abdulrazak Namdas, spokesman of the House, said
Thursday that Mr. Jibrin manufactured the
allegations as a way of protesting and getting back
against those responsible for his dismissal, which
was carried out in line with rules and conventions
of the parliament.
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