Jibrin boycotts House Ethics Committee hearing

Abdulmumin Jibrin
Abdulmumin Jibrin

A former chairman of House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, on Monday failed to appear before the House Ethics and Privileges Committee, investigating claims of misconduct against the lawmaker.

The House has been rocked by budget fraud scandal triggered by Mr. Jibrin, who accused the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and three others of “padding” the budget with billions of naira of fictitious projects.

The house has not investigated the claims.

Some members have instead accused Mr. Jibrin of violating their rights, by making the allegation publicly – rather than follow internal procedure.

The ethics panel probing that allegation started sitting on Friday.

The chairman of the committee, Nicholas Ossai, had urged Mr. Jibrin to appear on Monday at 12p.m.

Mr. Jibrin initially promised to do so if the proceedings were opened to the public.

By weekend, he said he had changed his decision. Mr. Jibrin accused the committee of bias and lack of independence.

His lawyer has also written to the speaker, asking him to discontinue the investigation.

The committee members are currently whispering amongst themselves apparently over the next line of action. 

 

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  • Cincinnatus

    They have not even judged the person that padded the budget, they are trying to persecute the person that expose them. Democracy is a waste of time in a country like Nigeria. All these senators/politicians lack a sense of morality. They cannot do the right thing because they lack the intelligence to do so.

    • Bayo Ola

      I agree with you 102%

    • FEMI A

      They do not think beside paddy! paddy!! They do act on making big corruptions. Buch of thieves.

  • Okokondem

    Without PREMIUM TIMES, and thanks also to SAMUEL OGUNDIPE, we probably wouldn’t have known about this scandal, and so I join others in saying thank you for your commitment to investigative journalism.

    However, when you wrote the following, you failed to tell your readers whether or not the house ethics committee agreed to Mr Jibrin’s stated conditions in order to appear before the committee.

    “Mr. Jibrin initially promised to do so if the proceedings were opened to the public. By weekend, he said he had changed his decision. Mr. Jibrin accused the committee of bias and lack of independence.”

    That creates ambiguity open to interpretation such as, Jibrin agreed and suddenly changed his mind.

    Again, we commend your continued efforts in covering this important development concerning our budgetary process, but we also would prefer that the coverage gives Mr Jibrin the benefit of the doubt.

  • Kenechi Casmir

    i #StandwithJibrin all the way