The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara, has<\/p>\n
given a seven day ultimatum to Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin to tender an
\nunreserved apology to him and retract all allegations made against him or
\nface legal action.<\/p>\n
A statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media & Public Affairs to
\nthe Speaker, Mr. Turaki Hassan, stated that the demand was contained in
\na letter written and addressed to Jibrin by counsel to Dogara, Professor
\nJoash Ojo Amupitan (SAN) & Co. It was signed By Professor Joash Amupitan,
\nSAN, who is the Principal Partner of the firm.<\/p>\n
The letter, entitled, ‘REQUEST FOR A RETRACTION AND AN APOLOGY OF A
\nLIBELOUS PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY YOU ON MONDAY 25TH JULY, 2016’, noted
\nthat the claims of the former Appropriations chairman, who was removed for
\npadding the budget and other actions, that the speaker is corrupt and
\nabuses his office is aimed at tarnishing his image at home and abroad and
\nis a clear case of libel.<\/p>\n
The letter read in part, “We act as solicitors to Rt Hon. Yakubu Dogara,
\nSpeaker of House of Representatives of Three Arm Zone National Assembly
\nComplex, Abuja herein after referred to as \u201cour client\u201d and on whose
\ninstructions we write this letter to you.<\/p>\n
“The attention of our client has been drawn to a libelous press statement
\nyou issued on Monday 25th July 2016 which was made available to members
\nof the press (print and electronic media) titled \u201cTHE CORRUPT SPEAKER
\nYAKUBU DOGARA AND HIS 3-MAN CABAL\u201d.<\/p>\n
“In the said publication, you published words to the following effect
\nconcerning our client and three other principal members of the House of
\nRepresentatives-
\n\u201cHonourable colleagues and fellow Nigerians, I wish to make further
\nrevelations.
\nSpeaker Yakubu Dogara and his senior cabal namely Deputy Speaker Lasun,
\nWhip Doguwa and Minority leader Ogor has (sic) promoted corruption so
\nbadly in the House that if President Muhammadu Buhari with his disdain for
\ncorruption and corrupt people have the slightest idea, he will ban the
\nQUARTET permanently from the Villa before they eventually allow for proper
\nand unbiased investigation by the House.
\nMr Speaker and Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun diverted millions of Naira all
\nin the name of paying for guest houses and official residence. The issue
\nbecame so messy that the Deputy Speaker openly accused Hon Herman Hembe of
\nshort changing them of millions of naira in the deal to the shock of many
\nHon Members.
\nSpeaker Yakubu Dogara frequently abuse his office amounting to conflict of
\ninterest by soliciting for inappropriate favours from agencies and
\nMultinational companies. He forced an agency to grant loans and a
\nconstruction company blackmailed to do some work at his Asokoro ‘plot’
\nSpeaker Yakubu Dogara has carefully designed a scheme to scam Hon Members
\nthrough deduction from their salaries certain amount of money for a so
\ncalled mortgage arrangement to build houses for members. He has been
\napplying every under hand tactics to ensure Members agree to the deal.
\n“Speaker Yakubu Dogara has consistently refused members access to the
\nfinancial dealings and internal budget of the House. He runs the financial
\nmanagement of the House like a cult aided and abated by the Chairman House
\nservices Hon Babanlle Ila. It is no longer news that all over the House,
\nHon Members are aware of the monumental fraud perpetrated by Speaker
\nYakubu Dogara in this regard.
\nWe are even told that this is a child’s play compared to the mess and
\nallegations of money laundering he left behind as Chairman house services
\nin both the 6th and 7th Assembly. The EFCC should have something to start
\nworking with in respect to his tenure as Chairman House services if they
\nproperly dust their files.\u201d
\n“These members of the body of principal officers were not comfortable with
\nmy independent disposition and my refusal to cover up their unilateral
\ndecision to allocate to themselves N40bn out of the N100bn allocated to
\nthe entire National Assembly.
\nThe four of them met and took that decision, in addition to billions of
\nwasteful projects running to over 20bn, they allocated to their
\nconstituencies. They must come out clean. My inability to admit into the
\nbudget almost 30bn personal requests from Mr. Speaker and the three other
\nprincipal officers, also became an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
It continued, “The personal references are obviously directed at our
\nclient, and amount to a very serious libel.<\/p>\n
“By the said publication and without putting to the public any shred of
\nevidence, our client is portrayed as a criminal, corrupt, dishonest,
\nfraudulent, dishonourable and unfit to hold the position of Speaker of
\nHouse of Representatives.<\/p>\n
“Our client\u2019s reputation has further been brought down in the estimation
\nof right thinking members of the society and he has been thrown into
\npublic opprobrium, odium, scorn and ridicule.<\/p>\n
“Consequently, we consider your publication on the matter as not only
\nlibelous but made in bad faith; an act of vendetta owing to your recent
\nremoval as the Chairman of House Committee on Appropriation.<\/p>\n
“The said publication is also aimed at causing disaffection between
\nNigerians and members of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
“Sequel to the above, we have to request you to submit immediately to us a
\nclear and unqualified apology and retraction of the publication in an
\nequally conspicuous position in all the print and electronic media where
\nthe publication appeared.<\/p>\n
“TAKE NOTICE that in the event of your failure\/refusal to comply with the
\nabove mentioned demands within seven (7) days of your receipt of this
\nletter, we have further instructions to institute a suit against you in a
\ncourt of law.<\/p>\n
If we have to pursue this course, we shall be claiming aggravated and
\nexemplary damages.<\/p>\n
Yours faithfully,
\nFor: Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN) & Co<\/p>\n
Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN
\nPrincipal Partner.”<\/p>\n
Recall that Jibrin has been circulating all manner of falsehoods against
\nthe speaker after he was removed as the chairman of the committee, a
\ndecision the whole House took after due consideration of his gross
\nincompetence and immaturity to handle the position of Appropriations
\nCommittee Chairman, among other issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara, has given a seven day ultimatum to Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin to tender an unreserved apology to him and retract…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n