Jibrin: Dogara Bribing Lawmakers With $25,000 To Secure Confidence Vote

The recently sacked Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has accused Speaker Yakubu Dogara of inducing Reps members with $25,000 to sign a document passing a vote of confidence on the Speaker.

In the latest allegation against Mr. Dogara, the former Appropriation Committee chair yesterday claimed that the Speaker, alongside his deputy, Yussuf Lasun, Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, opened a register for the vote of confidence at his Asokoro guest house located at Wilberforce Juta Crescent, where lawmakers each received $25,000 to sign the said document.

In a statement, Mr. Jibrin said: “This disgraceful act is coordinated by Hon Zakari Mohammed, Hon Jagaba Adams Jagaba and DCOS to Mr. Speaker Hon C.I.D. Maduabum”.

However, Maduabum said in a statement yesterday that Abdulmumin’s allegations were all lies.

“Can he not see that no one needs to be induced when he is on a one man riot squad to denigrate all members of the House and pull down the institution of the National Assembly?

“Once again, let me re-state that the Hon. Speaker, Rt. Hon. Dogara Yakubu did not give me or anyone any money to give to any member of the House of Representatives. This charge, as usual, exists in the demented and diseased imagination of the drowning Abdulmumin”.

Maduabum insisted that Jibrin was latching on “desperately, grasping at every straw in his deception, campaign of calumny, demagoguery and propaganda which he has unleashed on innocent public officers whose sole offence is that they fatally misjudged Hon. Abdulmumin’s instability of character and unsuitability to hold public office”.

Similarly, one of the accused persons, Zakari Mohammed, said he had nothing to do with any $25,000 Jibrin was talking about.

“The latest twist is one of the series which Jibrin had indulged in for the past two weeks to drag me into his one-man vitriolic assault on the leadership of the House following his replacement by the Speaker.

“I wish to state clearly that I did not collect any bribe sum from the Speaker and I never shared $25,000 to any member of the House to seek support for the Speaker. I have rich and ethical antecedents by heritage, upbringing, education and societal moulding”.

“I have been living within my means, I have always discharged my duties without fear or favour and I have no cause to indulge in bribery. I challenge Jibrin to come to equity with clean hands. Let him release any proof at his disposal to the public on the $25, 000 bribery allegations”, he said.