The Majority Whip of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa, has dismissed the former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, as a psychiatric case who should be ignored.
Doguwa said this in a text message he sent to our correspondent on Sunday.
He was responding to enquiries about a letter written by Jibrin to all 360 members of the House.
Jibrin had in the letter dated September 16, 2016, demanded the resignation of the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, the Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun, the Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa and the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor.
He accused them of budget fraud, corruption and abuse of office among other allegations.
The embattled former appropriations committee chairman urged his colleagues to ask the accused to step aside to allow for a thorough investigation.
He argued that they could not serve as judges in their own case.
Jibrin said among other things, “Speaker Dogara, acting in concert with the three other principal officers and as against my advice, inserted wasteful and fraudulent projects for their constituencies worth about N20 billion in a House where some members’ constituencies barely had nothing in the budget.
“I complained to Speaker Dogara that the chairmen of about 10 out of the 96 standing committees of the House had inserted over 2,000 projects worth about N284 billion without the knowledge of their committee members. But my complaint was ignored because the Speaker was acting in concert with them. So is it Hon Abdulmumin that inserted 2,000 projects worth N284bn in the budget?”
In response, Doguwa said, “It is now high time Nigerians and indeed our press disregarded and ignored any statement or communication coming from Abdulmumin Jibrin, the sacked Appropriation Committee Chairman.
“He has already lost moral conscience. He has now realised that he is fighting a lost battle with no single reasonable member behind him.
“We as a leadership have succeeded in consolidating our support base in the House, with over 300 respected members willingly signing the vote of confidence roll.”
In response to a question on whether or not the issue will feature when the House resumes on Tuesday, Doguwa said, “When we resume on Tuesday, the House will not even waste its valuable time discussing Jibrin’s issue.
“We would rather continue with more important legislative issues that would impact positively on our economy and the people we represent.
“I, therefore, on behalf of the leadership of the House wish to call on all our well-meaning members to disregard the so called letters sent to them by Abdulmimin Jibrin, whom we have all condemned and believed has lost his common sense.
“He is just a psychiatric case that everyone must condemn. Members must remain focused and never allow themselves to get distracted by the nuisance Jibrin.” – Punch.
