250 Reps want Dogara to step down, says Jibrin

Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and Former Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin ,Niyi Odebode John Ameh, Olalekan Adetayo, Eniola Akinkuotu and Leke Baiyewu A former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, says at least 250 out of the 360 members of the House have signed a petition calling for the probe and removal of the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara. He added that the Department of State Services had beefed up security around him due to threats he had been receiving. Jibrin said this on Thursday during a programme on Africa Independent Television, titled,‘Focus Nigeria.’ The lawmaker claimed that some of his colleagues even demanded that they marched down to the secretariat of the appropriations committee, but he told them that it was not yet time to do so. Jibrin said part of the demands of the lawmakers was that Dogara should immediately reconvene the House, which is on holiday, and then step down and allow a thorough probe of the lower chamber of the National Assembly. He, also, said Dogara had become jittery and had refused to give in to their demands. He said the intention of Dogara was to ensure that the House remained on recess until September when the tension would have been doused. He said, “I am not alone, I am with many members. Yesterday (Wednesday), a lot of them said they wanted to go to the secretariat with me, but I said no. I didn’t want us to make the thing to look like a movie. “We have the transparency group and it did not just start now; so no one can say Jibrin initiated it. It was formed even before we went on holiday. Anyone that says we are lying must be a joker because there were about 200 signatures before we left for holiday. “Now, they have increased to about 250. Another group has emerged aside the integrity group and these groups have come together and all they are asking Mr. Speaker to do is to reconvene the House immediately and step down, but the body language of Mr. Speaker and a few corrupt people around him is that the issue would have died down when we resume in September and Nigerians would have forgotten. “You are corrupt and you are talking about September. What we are asking for is that Mr. Speaker should reconvene the House immediately and step down so that internal and external investigations can go on concurrently.” Jibrin said apart from the Speaker, the culprits in the budget padding allegations were the Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun; the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor; and the Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa.