The Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, said budget<\/p>\n
padding allegations in the house impacted negatively on the integrity of
\nthe National Assembly.<\/p>\n
The speaker said this in his remarks while welcoming members back to
\nplenary after their eight-week recess.<\/p>\n
A member of the house, who was removed as Chairman, Appropriations
\nCommittee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, made the allegations against Dogora and some
\nprincipal officers of the lower chamber.<\/p>\n
Dogara said that the scandal orchestrated by the member posed a threat to
\nthe corporate integrity and image of the house as a democratic
\ninstitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cShortly after we adjourned for the recess, the erstwhile Chairman,
\nAppropriations Committee, embarked on strange propaganda clearly aimed not
\nonly at the destruction of the image of some members.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was also a systematic destruction of the institution of the House of
\nRepresentatives and indeed, the legislature, by portraying it to the
\npublic as an irredeemably corrupt institution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe motivation for his actions as he has said severally and repeatedly,
\nis to have the four principal officers removed from their positions and
\nnot that the truth should be known.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese wild allegations which were initially directed at four members of
\nthe House leadership progressively engulfed the entire membership of the
\nHouse and then, the institution,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
According to Dogara, the house leadership chose the part of maturity by
\nmaintaining great restraint, fully conscious of the fact that at the
\nappropriate time, the truth will prevail.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI have bad news for those who think they can pull down this
\ninstitution of the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf history is any guide, no one, in a democracy has ever succeeded in
\ndestroying a democratic institution such as the House of
\nRepresentatives.\u2019\u2019
\nWhile assuring that the House was fully conscious of its watchdog role,
\nthe speaker asserted that the lawmakers would not be distracted by
\ninsidious antics to confuse Nigerians.<\/p>\n
He described the modus operandi adopted by Jibrin to address his
\nallegations as inappropriate, saying there were constitutional avenues to
\naddress them considering the criminal nature of some of the allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is, however, important to briefly say that nothing warrants the
\ndeliberate attempt at destructive public misinformation aimed at
\ndiscrediting the house as an institution\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
The speaker promised that reforms in the budgeting process would be
\ninitiated by the National Assembly to guard against abuses.<\/p>\n
He revealed that he had directed the various committees to conduct
\nfact-finding on the level of implementation of the 2016 budget by various
\nMinistries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must take our oversight responsibilities seriously and report back to
\nthe house.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the report of the committees that will determine the level of
\nappropriation to any MDA in 2017,\u2019\u2019 he stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, said budget padding allegations in the house impacted negatively on the integrity of the National Assembly. The speaker said this in his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n