The House of Representatives Committee on Ethics and Privileges investigating the breach of privileges and acts of misconduct committed by the sacked Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Rep. Jibrin Abdulmumin on Friday commenced hearing with the principal witness declaring that the embattled lawmaker made disparaging comments about the House.
Appearing before the ethics committee yesterday, a principal witness and Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Rep. Orker-Jev, said Abdulmumin’s utterances maligned and defamed the House, and incited the public against House members.
He cited several of the utterances attributed to Abdulmumini which were captured on the pages of newspapers to include: “As it stands today, these corrupt elements have infected the House, making the institution a hub of systemic corruption. I repeat, there is massive individual and systemic corruption in the House of Representatives.
“And all Nigerians have a responsibility to avail themselves of this rare opportunity to flush out corruption in the House”; “It is a known fact that the legislative investigation is used as an avenue to extort money on an organized crime aided and abetted by Mr. Speaker” and “ I dare say corruption in the House of Representatives is more than that of the executive and judiciary combined”.
The witness said he and other House members have been inundated with calls from members of the public and publicly embarrassed as a result of the allegations made by Abdulmumin, even as he dismissed the allegations as false and misleading.
“There is nothing like budget padding as far as the constitution is concerned…His actions have defamed everyone. It means when we go on oversight, people would say these thieves have come again. We need to redeem our image”, he said.
Speaking while declaring the hearing open, Chairman of the committee, Rep. Ossai Nicholas Ossai, assured that the hearing would be conducted in public and that the committee would be objective and follow due process in performing its task.
“I have conferred with my colleagues and we have decided that since Nigerians are keenly interested in this matter, the press is allowed to cover”, he said, revealing that Abdulmumin would testify before the committee on Monday at 12 noon.
However, the embattled lawmaker had said he would only appear before the committee on condition that civil society organisations, labour unions, student groups and the public are allowed to observe proceedings.
Abdulmumin, following his removal, had accused Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker, Yussuff Sulaimon Lasun, Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, and nine chairmen of standing committees, of making insertions into the 2016 budget with the intent to commit fraud.
He further accused the four principal officers of allocating to themselves N40 billion out of the N100 billion allocated to the National Assembly for constituency projects.
It would be recalled that the House had on Wednesday unanimously voted to refer the matter to the ethics committee, following a motion which accused Abdulmumin of breaching the privileges of the House of Representatives. breaching privileges of members of the House, breach of the practices, precedents and usages of the House of Representatives, and sundry acts of misconduct against the members and institution of the House and the National Assembly, and breach of the provisions of the Legislatives Houses (powers and privileges) Act.
The motion which was sponsored by the Chairman of the Committee on Rules and Business, Rep. Emmanuel Orker-Jev recommended that Abdulmumin be suspended for a period not less than six months if found guilty.
