The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday grilled for not less than five hours the former House Committee on Appropriations chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin, over the alleged padding of about N284billion of the 2016 budget.
The padding allegation was a serious issue that engulfed the House of Representatives last year that saw the removal of Abdulmumin Jibrin, as a committee chairman and even subsequent suspension from the house for a couple of months.
It is however not surprising that the issue has returned to the front burner where it was heard that Jibrin has released to the EFCC fresh evidences of his position.
It was gathered that Jibrin arrived at the EFCC Headquarters around 11am with fresh insights of his claims which some persons described as “startling”.He did not leave until 4pm after what was described as an “interesting session”.The probe it was learnt will be starting with 13 people while Jibrin is the first lawmaker to be quizzed in the first phase of the probe.
About 50 members of the House, including four principal officers, have been shortlisted for quizzing. The principal officers are Speaker Yakubu Dogara; Deputy Speaker Lasun Yusuf; Minority Leader Leo Ogor; and House Whip Alhassan Doguwa.
Ogor has been invited for interrogation on Friday.
The probe followed a petition by Jibrin, who sources said, detectives have discovered also has a case to answer.
“We are going to look into fresh clues provided by Jibrin who also has questions to answer on some constituency projects. I think more than two-thirds of members of the House were implicated in the budget padding. We will however restrict ourselves to 50 peculiar suspects.”
Areas of grouse include the following:
Inclusion of N20billion wasteful projects by House leaders.Unilateral diversion of N40billion, out of the N100billion allocated for constituency projects, by some House leaders and distribution of same to themselves.Chairmen of about 10 of the 96 standing committees of the House inserted over 2,000 projects worth about N284billion.
Creation of a strange line item in the Service Wide Vote to allow for a N20billion insertion into the budget under the name of the National Assembly.
- Relocation of Appropriations Committee Secretariat on two occasions where several insertions were made into the budget
- Diversion of a Federal Government water project to a personal farm in Nasarawa State and the source of funding.
- Monthly deduction of funds from votes meant for members’ office running cost to fund a so-called mortgage arrangement.
- Abuse of office through frequent private meetings with heads of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) in a clear case of corruption and conflict of interest.
- Some leaders allocated 20 per cent inputs reserved for the House the harmonisation exercise.”
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