Jibrin links Omisore to House budget padding controversy

Embattled former House of Representatives Appropriation Committee Chairman Abdulmumin Jibrin has linked Senator Iyiola Omisore with the budget padding controversy.

Omisore, who represented Osun East, was the chairman of the seventh Senate’s Appropriation Committee.

In a letter to All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun in which he urged him to advise House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara to resign, Jibrin alleged an unholy alliance between Dogara and Omisore.

In the letter, dated August 12, Jibrin said Dogara’s exit would enable the House “nominate a SpeakerPro Tempore and mobilise our members to support him to take over and adjourn the House until when we are due for resumption in September”.

“This will give room for consultations on the election of a new Speaker when we resume,” he said.

He urged the party “to discuss on the possibility of returning the N100 billion constituency component of the budget under any of our laws so that all stolen money can be returned, particularly the N40 billion naira and equitably distributed to all constituencies.”

The office of the speaker declined to react to Jibrin’s letter yesterday.

On Omisore’s role, he said: “His godfather is Senator Iyiola Omisore. During the build up to the appointment of committee chairmen, I had a terrible disagreement with him (Dogara). While in  London, before the appointment of committee chairmen, Jibrin claimed that Dogara “pleaded with me to join him at a house in London. I went and I saw him seated very comfortably with Senator Omisore. It was there he said he was going to appoint me as chairman, Appropriations and I should be reporting to Omisore

“I was completely shocked. A nice lunch was served; we ate and we left. At least, there are CCTVs in London. I confided in a highly-placed person who I wouldn’t want to mention his name. He advised me to remain calm and concentrate on my job. My refusal to comply with such questionable instructions largely accounted for the anger of Mr. Speaker towards me.

“It was much later that I realised that Senator Omisore had adopted Speaker Dogara as a godson since their days as Chairman Appropriations and House Services in the sixth Assembly respectively.”

Jibrin also accused Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal of not supporting his appointment as Appropriations Committee chairman.

Jibrin said Dogara was “more interested in telling me about the forces who didn’t want me to be appointed chairman, appropriations as if I cared. He mentioned former Speaker and present Governor of Sokoto State Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as one. That is how narrow-minded Dogara can be.”