Budget padding: Jibrin indicts Omisore

Abdulmumin Jibrin, former chairman, appropriations committee of the House of Representatives, has alleged that Iyiola Omisore, former deputy governor of Osun state, Senator Iyiola Omisore, is the “godfather” of Yakubu Dogara.

Jibrin, in a letter addressed to John Oyegun, chairman of the APC, said he made “an error of judgment” in supporting Dogara to be speaker.

He said it took few weeks after the election to realise “the corrupt and dangerous man inside the skin of speaker Dogara”.

Jibrin said contrary to public belief, he fell apart with Dogara when he started getting reports of his “corrupt practises” which had gone undetected in the house for many years.

“We practically disagreed on almost everything,” he said.

“His godfather is Sen Iyola Omisore. Speaker Dogara is of the habit of taking standing committee chairmen to swear oath of allegiance before Omisore.

“During the buildup to the appointment of committee chairmen. I had a terrible disagreement with him. I stayed far away from him.

“From the appointment of committee chairmen, to splitting of committees, to non-disclosure of the finances of the house, to his greed of unifying everything under his control, commercialisation of bills, divisive approach across ethnic and religious line, arrogance and power drunk, corruption and fraud during the budget period among many others.

“Who will I tell or run to having played such a leading role in bringing him on board? He operates alone, keep weird relationships with top politicians.

“I was in london when he insisted that he wanted to see me. He came to my hotel room and we talked for hours. I gave him a lot of advice but I never knew it was getting in from one ears and out from the other.”

The lawmaker said Dogara was not loyal to the APC and predicted that he would soon plan an attack on the ruling party.

“In a nutshell, it will be dangerous and potentially disastrous for the party to keep speaker Yakubu Dogara on that seat,” he said.

“I seek the understanding and forgiveness from you, our leaders and every member of the APC family that was hurt by my action. Thank God I will be 40 September 9.

“I promise that moving forward, I will dedicate and completely commit myself to achieving the goals set out by the party. This case should be served as a lesson for everyone in the future.”

The former appropriations chairman further drew the attention of Oyegun to earlier allegations he levelled against the speaker and others.

He suggested that as a way forward, there was no better way of demonstrating the party’s commitment to fight against corruption other than using the speaker and others as example.

“They have become a baggage that should be off loaded by the APC before it inflict an irreparable damage on the party,” he said.

[mailerlite_form form_id=1]

“As a way forward, I wish to recommend to the party to direct speaker Yakubu Dogara to reconvene the house and step down with other accused principal officers immediately to allow for an internal and external investigation without investigation without Interference so that sanity will return.”

He suggested that a speaker pro tempo be nominated so the he would take over and adjourn the house until the due date of resumption in September.