Jibrin in trouble, suspended 180 days for accusing Dogara of corruption

Nigerian House of Representatives on Wednesday suspended Abdulmumin Jibrin for 180 legislative days and banned him from holding positions of authority for the rest of the eighth Assembly.

The House Ethics Committee chairman, Nicholas Ossai, raised the motion and recommendation and it was adopted by the whole House.

Since the House seats three times in a week, Jibrin will spend more than a year observing his suspension. He will also miss out on other privileges like his salaries and allowances.

The former Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation got himself in trouble after he alleged that Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers of the House criminally padded the 2016 budget.

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The House, however referred his action as breaching the privileges of the members and during its plenary on Thursday September 21, a day after it resumed from its annual recess, moved a motion to have Mr Jibrin probed.

Emmanuel Orker-Jev, a lawmaker from Benue, who moved the motion, asked that tough sanctions should be meted against Jibrin for the damage his allegations have allegedly caused 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.

Jibrin was subsequently referred to House Ethics Committee, led by Nicholas Ossai to sit and decide on his case.

He failed to appear on the two occasions the committee sat.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

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