Budget Padding: Police Invade Jibrin’s Office, Cart Away Documents

A combined team of security operatives stormed the office of the suspended former Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, at the National Assembly Complex.

This is as Jibrin insisted that the House was a den of corruption.

He said this soon after his office was stormed by a combined team of security operatives.

The security team, which was made up of policemen and members of the Sergeant-at-Arms (the internal security arm of the National Assembly), stormed the office at 2.07pm and left at about 3.10pm.

There was no sign of the embattled lawmaker but a handful of members of his staff were seen putting together what was believed to be some of his personal effects.

The security officials went away with some documents.

Jibrin, in a statement he addressed to his colleagues, said since his suspension on Wednesday, he had been under intense public scrutiny and pressure to prove his allegations against the House.

 He said, “I have taken it as a responsibility to prove to the public that the House is a den of systemic corruption. As colleagues, I have bound with many of you and have built a life-long friendship.

“I have some of you that I hold in high esteem. If you end up at the receiving end of the actions I will be taking up in the next few days, I want you to know there is nothing personal but commitment and fervent desire to ensure that corruption is wiped out of the House and reforms that will restore the battered image of the House and take back the House to the Nigerian people are implemented.”

Consequently, the former Appropriations Committee chairman demanded that any of his colleagues who had illegally taken or stolen any money meant for the running cost of their offices should return same to the public treasury within one week or risk exposure and prosecution.

Jibrin said, “I have written to the Clerk of the National Assembly to stand by in anticipation.

“In the face of the revenue challenges and biting hardship the country is currently facing, there is no better time the country needs such money than now.

 “In the case of the Presiding and Principal Officers, in addition to my demand in this letter which applies to them too, I wrote them yesterday (on Wednesday) and gave them a 72-hour ultimatum to make public the total amount they had received as running cost in their entire stay in the House, failure of which I will proceed with necessary legal action to compel them to make the total amount each of them had received public.

“There are other issues of monumental corruption in the House that I will be raising in the following weeks which we must all deal with, but first, let’s get done with this one.”

 Earlier, the spokesman for the House, Abdulrazak Namdas, had said the House acted within its rules by suspending the Jibrin.

 He said, “The constitution clearly states that there is separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, the House is self-regulatory and what we have done is in line with our rules.”