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.
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