The
Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters
(Senate), Senator Ita Enang; and the Senior Special Assistant to the
President on National Assembly Matters, Mr. Ismail Kawu, made the
Presidency’s position on the lingering crisis in the House of
Representatives known when they appeared before the leadership of the
ruling All Progressives Congress at the party’s headquarters.
They told the party leaders that
they were at the headquarters to make the Presidency’s position on the matter known.
But members of the Transparency Group, a
group of lawmakers backing the former Chairman, House Committee on
Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, faulted the Presidency, insisting that
the allegation of padding should be investigated.
Jibrin had accused the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and some officers of the House of padding the 2016 budget.
The APC had intervened in the matter
last week, as its leadership separately met with Dogara and Jibrin. The
efforts, however, failed.
Enang, while addressing journalists
after the meeting on Tuesday, said, “I am here on the invitation of the
APC leadership with my colleague (Kawu) to answer questions on the 2016
Appropriation Act.
“We have given explanation on every
issue. There is nothing, to our knowledge, like padding of the budget.
The budget, as assented to by the President, is the budget passed by the
National Assembly and it is being executed.
“For now, the party is handling it as a
domestic issue; a party issue. All of us have been told not to make
public comments because the matter is still under consideration.
“We will not want to go into the details
so that we will not breach the party’s directive or pre-empt the
outcome of the party’s probe.’’
When asked if the Presidency had cleared Dogara of padding the budget, Enang said the Presidency would not “draw conclusions.”
He said, “I will say we came here as
persons who work as liaison officers on the budget. The party wanted us
to make clarifications and we have made those clarifications.
“We will not draw any conclusion.
Please, let us not go too far by mentioning any office. Let it be that
two of us have appeared before the party.”
When asked again if the Presidency’s
denial of the padding of the budget had dismissed Jibrin’s allegation,
Enang stated that there was nothing like padding in the legislature.
He said the legislature had the constitutional duty to amend the Appropriation Bill sent to it by the President.
“In all our years of legislative
engagement, we have yet to find in the legislative lexicon the word,
‘padding.’ When the budget is presented before the legislature, the
legislature is to consider the budget and pass as it deems fit.
“So, what the legislature passes becomes
the Appropriation Act upon assent. Therefore, any word which has yet to
crystallise in legislative lexicon, you cannot hear us mention it.”
The Transparency Group, however, insisted on investigation, urging Enang to advise President Buhari appropriately.
One of the members, Baballe Bashir, told The PUNCH that the zonal intervention projects of lawmakers had exposed the “rot” in budgeting process in the country.
Bashir said the budget was for the
nation and not an “avenue for a few persons to allocate huge resources
to their areas to the exclusion of other areas simply because they are
principal officers.”
He added, “With his vast experience as a
former parliamentarian, what Enang should do is to advise the President
to clean up the country’s budgetary process.
“This is not just about whether there is
padding or not. Our budgeting process has problems that must be
addressed. So, let him advise the President appropriately, looking at
the allegations raised by Jibrin.”
The group stated that it members were
not working for Jibrin, but only found his allegations to be in tandem
with the fight the group started in June.
Another member of the group, Mr. Musa Soba, expressed surprise over Enang’s comments.
He stated, “He must have been misquoted. We still feel there is enough evidence to warrant an investigation.”
I stand by my demand for probe – Jibrin
In a statement on Tuesday, Jibrin
repeated his allegations against Dogara and other officers, saying he
stood by his demand for their probe.
The statement read in part, “…Now that I
have exposed the fact that Speaker Dogara and the three others have
padded the budget, padding is no longer an offence. Shame!
“There is massive individual and
institutional corruption in the House of Representatives. All Nigerians
have a responsibility to avail themselves of this rare opportunity to
flush out corruption in the House.’’
Meanwhile, the secretariat of the House
Committee on Appropriation, which was shut 10 days ago by the Department
of State Services, remained closed on Tuesday.
EFCC grills Jibrin, to invite Dogara
The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission on Tuesday grilled Jibrin as part of investigation into the
budget padding allegations.
It was learnt that Jibrin spent over
five hours at the EFCC office, explaining to investigators how the 2016
budget was allegedly padded by Dogara; the Deputy Speaker, Yusuff Lasun;
the Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa; the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, and
nine others.
An EFCC operative, who confirmed
Jibrin’s visit, said, “Jibrin came to our office to honour an
invitation. His petition was voluminous and we needed clarification. He
submitted more documents before leaving. We told him that we could call
him again at any time.
“Based on the allegations and documents
he submitted, we will invite other lawmakers, especially Dogara, and
members of the appropriations committee.”
The source said Jibrin also promised to bring more documents to support his allegations.
Credit: Punch
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