How Buhari tackled Jibrin over ‘budget padding’ scandal – Dogara

Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has revealed how President Muhammadu Buhari tackled former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin over the alleged budget padding scandal.

Jibrin had accused Dogara and other principal officers of the House of padding the 2016 budget to the tune of multi-million.

However, Dogara said when Jibrin met with Buhari to make his case, the president asked if it was possible for four officers to pad a budget in a National Assembly made up of 469 members.

In his yet-to-be-released biography, “A Reed Made Flint,” authored by veteran broadcaster, Dele Momodu, Dogara said Jibrin’s inability to answer the question made the president to order him, Jibrin, not to raise the issue without providing an answer again.

Dogara said: “Although Hon. Jibrin himself had subtly blackmailed Mr. President on a Channels TV interview, he still managed to get some elements in the security services to ferry him before Mr. President where he made the allegations of padding against us.

“As a principled and experienced leader that the president is, he sought to know where the other leaders of NASS were when the budget was padded by just four leaders of the house. None of our traducers could answer the question. Since he does not suffer fools gladly, he told them that except they answer the question nobody should bring up the subject matter to him again.

“That was how the lying cowards left him and never returned. They dare not mention anyone in the Senate or the House Leadership when every informed person knew that no position on any aspect of the budget can be taken without the concurrence of the Senate.”