SAN FRANCISCO, September 28, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives on Wednesday suspended a former chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin for a period of 180 legislative sitting days, over an alleged breach of the privileges of members of the lower legislative chamber.
The breach in question revolves around the budget-padding allegations he levelled against the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, four other principal officers and other lawmakers.
The House also barred Jibrin from holding positions of responsibility throughout the life of the 8th National Assembly. The 180 legislative days suspension which the lawmaker bagged approximates to about a year.
Recall that upon resumption from recess, a lawmaker from Benue, Emmanuel Orker-Jev, had proposed tough sanctions against Jibrin for the damage his allegations have allegedly wrought on the House.
“The image of the House has never been worse than this before. Hon. Jibrin was reckless and the allegations were false. He knew that the allegations were false and scandalous and he had no regards at all to whether the allegations were true or false,” he said.
The House subsequently assigned the matter to its Ethics and Privileges Committee for further investigation and to report back within a week with its findings and recommendations.
The chairman of the committee, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai convened the first hearing on the matter September 23, during which Orker-Jev submitted his allegations against Jibrin.
He received an invitation to appear before the committee on Monday but decided to boycott the hearing, even though his demand that the sitting be thrown open to the public was met by Ossai.
Jibrin, who failed to show up at the ethics and privileges committee to defend himself, was suspended following the report and recommendations laid before the house by the committee after the conclusion of its hearing.
Upon the consideration of the report moved by Ossai and seconded by Hon. Orker Jev Orker, the House resolved that the actions of Jibrin contravened Order 6, rules 1-4 of the House Standing Order and Chapter 9, paragraph 3 of the Code of Conduct rules of the House.
