Suspended
former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations,
Abdulmumin Jibrin, has gone on exile.
He
has vowed never to return to Nigeria unless his safety can be guaranteed.
The
embattled lawmaker who left Nigeria for London last week to receive an award
and take his anti-corruption campaign to international community, made his
decision public in an interview aired on the London based Ben TV, on Monday.
Jibrin
explained that his decision to flee the country was informed by threats he said
he had been receiving from some of his colleagues whom he accused of fraud.
According
to him, a cabal in the House allegedly led by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, the
Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun, the Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, and the Minority
Leader, Leo Ogor, are using Herma Hembe to threaten him and members of his
family.
The
lawmaker also said the initial silence of President Muhammadu Buhari on the
matter was a blessing in disguise because if the President had spoken much
earlier he would have been accused of using him to fight the House leadership.
Jibrin
said, “The situation currently at hand is different from the initial stage of
the crisis. The silence of the Presidency is no longer sending the right
message to Nigerians and the international community.”
He
also revealed that he recently wrote to President Buhari, seeking an audience
to brief him about the monumental fraud in the 2016 budget, the individual and
systemic corruption in the House and some vital information on how to check
corruption in the House and further fraud in the budget process and reform the
House for the good of the country.
He
said over 2,000 fraudulent projects worth over N284bn were inserted into the
2016 budget, adding that such fraud never happened in the history of the
Nigerian legislature.
Jibrin,
who exonerated himself from any wrongdoing in the appropriation process, said
he had been in the House for five years and had never abused his office or
corruptly enriched himself.
While
reiterating his resolve to continue with the anti-corruption campaign, he
revealed that he would now take the campaign to the international stage by
reaching out to foreign governments, parliaments, media, civil society groups
and Nigerians in Diaspora, to press for the arrest and prosecution of Dogara,
Lasun, Doguwa, Ogor and other members of the corrupt cabal in the House of
Representatives.
When
contacted, the Special Adviser to the Speaker, Mr. Turaki Hassan, said he would
“not dignify the suspended lawmaker with a response.”
Source:The Punch
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Politics