Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has given sacked
chairman of the House committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, a
7-day ultimatum to retract all the allegations of corruption padding he
leveled against him since he was sacked form office or face legal
action.
Jibrin who was sacked on 20th July, has released several statements
accusing Dogara and three other principal of corruption and padding of
the 2016 budget. Read Yakubu Dogara’s statement below…
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon
Yakubu Dogara, has given a seven day ultimatum to Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin
to tender an unreserved apology to him and retract all allegations made
against him or face legal action.
A statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media & Public Affairs
to the Speaker, Mr. Turaki Hassan, stated that the demand was
contained in a letter written and addressed to Jibrin by counsel to
Dogara, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN) & Co. It was signed By
Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, who is the Principal Partner of the firm.
The letter, entitled,
‘REQUEST FOR A RETRACTION AND AN APOLOGY OF A LIBELOUS PRESS STATEMENT
ISSUED BY YOU ON MONDAY 25TH JULY, 2016’, noted that the claims of the
former Appropriations chairman, who was removed for padding the budget
and other actions, that the speaker is corrupt and abuses his office is
aimed at tarnishing his image at home and abroad and is a clear case of
libel.
The letter read in part, “We act as solicitors to Rt Hon. Yakubu
Dogara, Speaker of House of Representatives of Three Arm Zone National
Assembly Complex, Abuja herein after referred to as “our client” and on
whose instructions we write this letter to you.
“The attention of our client has been drawn to a libelous press
statement you issued on Monday 25th July 2016 which was made available
to members of the press (print and electronic media) titled “THE CORRUPT
SPEAKER YAKUBU DOGARA AND HIS 3-MAN CABAL”.
“In the said publication, you published words to the following effect
concerning our client and three other principal members of the House of
Representatives-
“Honourable colleagues and fellow Nigerians, I wish to make further
revelations.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his senior cabal namely Deputy Speaker Lasun,
Whip Doguwa and Minority leader Ogor has (sic) promoted corruption so
badly in the House that if President Muhammadu Buhari with his disdain
for corruption and corrupt people have the slightest idea, he will ban
the QUARTET permanently from the Villa before they eventually allow for
proper and unbiased investigation by the House.
Mr Speaker and Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun diverted millions of Naira all
in the name of paying for guest houses and official residence. The
issue became so messy that the Deputy Speaker openly accused Hon Herman
Hembe of short changing them of millions of naira in the deal to the
shock of many Hon Members.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara frequently abuse his office amounting to conflict
of interest by soliciting for inappropriate favours from agencies and
Multinational companies. He forced an agency to grant loans and a
construction company blackmailed to do some work at his Asokoro ‘plot’
Speaker Yakubu Dogara has carefully designed a scheme to scam Hon
Members through deduction from their salaries certain amount of money
for a so called mortgage arrangement to build houses for members. He has
been applying every under hand tactics to ensure Members agree to the
deal.
“Speaker Yakubu Dogara has consistently refused members access to the
financial dealings and internal budget of the House. He runs the
financial management of the House like a cult aided and abated by the
Chairman House services Hon Babanlle Ila. It is no longer news that all
over the House, Hon Members are aware of the monumental fraud
perpetrated by Speaker Yakubu Dogara in this regard.
We are even told that this is a child’s play compared to the mess and
allegations of money laundering he left behind as Chairman house
services in both the 6th and 7th Assembly. The EFCC should have
something to start working with in respect to his tenure as Chairman
House services if they properly dust their files.”
“These members of the body of principal officers were not comfortable
with my independent disposition and my refusal to cover up their
unilateral decision to allocate to themselves N40bn out of the N100bn
allocated to the entire National Assembly.
The four of them met and took that decision, in addition to billions of
wasteful projects running to over 20bn, they allocated to their
constituencies. They must come out clean. My inability to admit into the
budget almost 30bn personal requests from Mr. Speaker and the three
other principal officers, also became an issue.”
It continued, “The personal references are obviously directed at our
client, and amount to a very serious libel.
“By the said publication and without putting to the public any shred of
evidence, our client is portrayed as a criminal, corrupt, dishonest,
fraudulent, dishonourable and unfit to hold the position of Speaker of
House of Representatives.
“Our client’s reputation has further been brought down in the estimation
of right thinking members of the society and he has been thrown into
public opprobrium, odium, scorn and ridicule.
“Consequently, we consider your publication on the matter as not only
libelous but made in bad faith; an act of vendetta owing to your recent
removal as the Chairman of House Committee on Appropriation.
“The said publication is also aimed at causing disaffection between
Nigerians and members of the House of Representatives.
“Sequel to the above, we have to request you to submit immediately to us
a clear and unqualified apology and retraction of the publication in an
equally conspicuous position in all the print and electronic media
where the publication appeared.
“TAKE NOTICE that in the event of your failure/refusal to comply with
the above mentioned demands within seven (7) days of your receipt of
this letter, we have further instructions to institute a suit against
you in a court of law.
If we have to pursue this course, we shall be claiming aggravated and
exemplary damages.
Yours faithfully,
For: Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN) & Co
Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN
Principal Partner.”
Recall that Jibrin has been circulating all manner of falsehoods against
the speaker after he was removed as the chairman of the committee, a
decision the whole House took after due consideration of his gross
incompetence and immaturity to handle the position of Appropriations
Committee Chairman, among other issues.