The Nigeria Police Force have invited Speaker of the
House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara, his deputy Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip
Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor to appear before a Special
investigative panel set up by the acting Inspector-General of Police
(IGP)
Ibrahim Idris, to probe the allegations of padding the 2016 budget leveled
against them by sacked chairman of the House committee on Appropriation,
Abdulmumin Jibrin.
They are to appear before the panel on Friday August 5th.
The invitation comes following a petition submitted to the police against the
Speaker and the three other principal officers by Jibrin.
The 5-man investigative panel is to be led by Assistant
Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Amodu Ali. A police source who spoke to the
Nation said
"We have commenced full investigation into the
N284billion budget padding in the House of Representatives based on a petition
from Hon. Jibrin.
A Special Investigative Panel (SIP), with a crack detective,
AIG Amodu Ali as the chairman, is the one saddled with the responsibility of
looking into the allegations in the petition.
The same Ali uncovered the lid on
the $620,000 bribery scam in the House for which a former Chairman of the House
Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management, Mallam Farouk Lawan, and the Clerk of the
committee, Mr. Boniface Emenalo were indicted. The case is in court.
You will
recall that Ali was deeply involved in the investigation of the $180million
Halliburton scam. So, the SIP is led by an officer who is tested. As I am
talking to you (4pm yesterday), a letter of invitation has been addressed and
sent to the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the Chief Whip and the Minority
Leader.
They will be interrogated by the SIP on Friday. As a prelude to the
invitation of the principal officers, the SIP chairman and members had a
session with Jibrin on Tuesday. It was not a grilling session.
But Jibrin
furnished the team with vital information and a heap of documents to back up
the petition he submitted on Monday. We are going into the merit or otherwise
of the petition on Friday by inviting Dogara and three others.
It is going to
be a gradual thing but we will crack the padding controversy.”
Meanwhile security has been beefed up around Jibrin by
the Department of State Security DSS.
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