The House of Representatives on Wednesday suspended the former chairman of committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin for 180 legislative days and banned him from holding positions of authority for the rest of the eight national assembly.
AbdulMumin Jibrin, a lawmaker from Kano who revealed what is now known as the budget padding scandal, has been receiving heat since he exposed the insertion into the 2016 budget by the House principal officers.
At the pick of the budget padding crisis, the House went on recess while Jibrin has since then been making damning revelations about the anomalies that went down during the 2016 budget preparation at any given opportunity.
After the House resumed on September 20, Lawmakers loyal to the Speaker, Honorable Yakubu Dogara moved a motion to have Mr. Jibrin probed for allegedly breaching the privileges of the members Premium Times reports.
In the report, PT claimed that Emmanuel Orker-Jev, a lawmaker from Benue, proposed tough sanctions against Mr. Jibrin for the damage his allegations have allegedly wrought on the House.
“The image of the House has never been worse than this before. Hon. Jibrin was reckless and the allegations were false.
He knew that the allegations were false and scandalous and he had no regards at all to whether the allegations were true or false,” Mr. Orker-Jev said.
The House Ethics and Privileges Committee was directed to take over the case and report back to the House within one week.
The committee which was chaired by Honorable Nicholas Ossai had earlier summoned honorable Jibrin Abdulmumin to appear before it which he declined.
Mr. Jibrin admitted receiving the summon letter but boycotted the hearing and sought the continuation of the committee’s hearing through his lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN).
Mr. Ossai said Mr. Jibrin’s failure to appear before his “properly and constitutionally constituted committee” was, in effect, a defence.
Mr. Jibrin had on Tuesday alleged sub judice saying the committee should not have sat since the matter was in court.
The committee in a motion recommended by chairman and adopted by the whole House therefore banned Honorable Jibrin and declared that he must not hold any position of authority till the expiration of the current National Assembly.
It means that Honorable Jibrin Abdulmumin would also not receive salaries or allowances.