In a statement on Thursday,
Yakubu Dogara, the speaker, Yusuf Lasun, the deputy speaker and other principal
officers, said that in conjunction with the senate and a team from the
executive, the house leadership rescued the budget when it was put into
jeopardy by Jibrin.
The leadership of the house
of representatives says abuse of the 2016 budget process led to pressure by
members to sack Abdulmumin Jibrin as chairman of the appropriations committee.
“The decision to relieve
the erstwhile appropriation chairman of his position was a collective decision
of the leadership in response to unrelenting pressures from the overwhelming
majority of honourable members who were irked by the former chairman’s gross
abuse of the budget process,” they said.
“Both actions were taken in
the best interest of the institution and the nation for which we take full
responsibility.
“In the meantime however,
the leadership of the house of representatives wishes to reaffirm that it took
collective action, in conjunction with the senate and a team from the
executive, to rescue the 2016 budget when it became obvious that the former
appropriation chairman had placed both the document and the process in jeopardy
resulting in a spate of agitation from ministries, departments and agencies.”
They described the
allegations made by the former appropriations chairman against them as wild,
baseless and unfounded.
“Truth may be slow but it
usually always wins the race in the end. We have no doubts,” they added.
Jibrin had accused some
members of the house leadership of padding the budget through the insertions of
unnecessary projects.
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