Following the budget padding allegation levelled against principal members of the House of Representatives by the former Chairman, House Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, the Chief Whip of the House has finally responded and given his take on the alleged scandal.
Mr Alhassan Doguwa, the Chief Whip of the House during an interview with Channels TV on Sunday described the allegations as being frivolous and baseless.
Recall that the allegation levelled by Abdulmumin Jibrin, implicated the Speaker Yakubu Dogara, his Deputy, Suleiman Lasun, the Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa and the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor in the alleged 2016 budget padding scandal.
Honourable Doguwa during the interview said: “When you expect a legislator to work on a bill, certainly he has the constitution and supreme right to deal with that bill at any level, whether in first reading second reading or general reading.
“At whatever level the legislator engages a budget, he is doing nothing but his legitimate responsibility,” he explained.
Further regarding the budget padding allegation, he said: “That is a strange word to me.
“It is a crime for you guys to be calling legislators ‘paddlers’. It is a speculation. Baseless speculation”.
Mr. Doguwa further noted that actions such as this was what led to Jibrin’s initial sack as the Chairman of the House Appropriation Committee.
“He is an enemy to this institution, an enemy to the system of democracy in Nigeria and our own great party, the APC”
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