The embattled and suspended member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to make a public statement on his corruption allegation the House of Representatives.
Jibrin, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) member from Kano state, told IBTimes UK he wants to expose the “prevalence of systemic corruption in Nigeria.” He praised the President for his strong stance against corruption, but added he should address the evidence he allegedly holds against lawmakers he accused of being involved in the country’s budget padding scandal.
“The silence of the presidency is no longer sending the right message to Nigerians and the international community. The president needs to come out and make a definite statement,” Jibrin said.
Jibrin said he wrote a letter to President Buhari to discuss the allegations of corruption, but claimed he had not received a response.
In September, Jibrin was suspended by the House of Representatives for 180 legislative days after accusing some officials of the Nigerian Lower Chamber of corruption.
Among other things, Jibrin claimed the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, and three other principal officers were corrupt and should resign. Jibrin alleged the lawmakers had manipulated the budget by creating fake projects in order to allocate themselves billions of Naira.
Speaker Dogara denied the allegations and refused to resign. He also said there was not such an offence as “budget padding” in the Nigerian constitution. Jibrin made the allegations after he was removed as a chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation in July.
Earlier this month, Jibrin went to London to receive an award for his anti-corruption crusade by the London-based African Voice newspaper. The embattled politician later claimed he had received death threats and would not return to Nigeria unless his safety was guaranteed.
“Many people have come to me and said please stop this struggle, because they are going to kill you. It is a tough thing to fight corruption,” Jibrin said. “But here I am, fighting to expose corruption. I am ready to risk my life.
“I suspected I would be suspended because of the prevalence of systemic corruption in the house,” he continued. “Most of them are involved in this scam. This issue is going to involve many more people and it is a massive fraud.”
The President’s spokesperson Femi Adesina declined to comment on Jibrin’s claim when quizzed by IBTimes UK
