To pass the 2016
Appropriation Bill, Nigerian
lawmakers engaged in what
appeared as massive fraud,
allocating obscene amounts
of money to themselves to
purportedly execute
thousands of fictitious
‘constituency projects’,
documents made available to
PREMIUM TIMES have shown.
The documents were sent to
this newspaper as tension
intensified in the House of
Representatives over the
unfolding budget padding
scandal.
The crisis was sparked by
the removal of former
appropriations committee
chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin,
from his post.
The Speaker of the House,
Yakubu Dogara, announced
Mr. Jibrin’s departure in a
statement on the floor of the
lower chamber, saying he
betrayed the trust reposed
in him by his colleagues.
But in a blistering response,
Mr. Jibrin denied the
allegations, saying it was Mr.
Dogara who in fact attempted
to smuggle billions into the
budget.
Mr. Jibrin also lashed out at
Deputy Speaker, Lasun
Yusuf; House Whip, Alhassan
Doguwa; and Minority Leader,
Leo Ogor, accusing them of
colluding with Mr. Dogara to
fraudulently insert up to N40
billion in new expenses for
themselves from the National
Assembly budget.
After several weeks of
extensive negotiation and
intrigues between the
executive and the National
Assembly, the 2016 budget
was finally passed in April
and President Buhari signed
it into law on May 6.
But the damning documents
sent to PREMIUM TIMES on
Sunday showed how
lawmakers sought Speaker
Dogara’s benevolence to
approve various ‘projects’
for themselves in their
respective constituencies.
From provision for solar-
powered boreholes in Kano
to an urgent need to feed
police cadets in Bauchi,
lawmakers inundated Mr.
Jibrin with requests to pad
the 2016 budget with mainly
projects they had no
business canvassing for.
Many lawmakers jumped on
the gravy train and routed
their requests for
‘constituency projects’
through Speaker Dogara, the
documents showed.
One of the documents
showed how a whopping N2.8
billion was earmarked for
just 56 of such petty
projects.
The documents also showed
that Speaker Dogara
arbitrarily approved amounts
for the fraudulent projects
without any systematic
costing, indicating that the
requesting lawmakers were
never expected to execute
the projects, but to pocket
the allocations.
Jonathan Gbefwi, one of the
lawmakers whose names
appeared on the documents,
did not answer PREMIUM
TIMES’ repeated calls and
SMS for comments. Three
other lawmakers had their
lines switched off.
Mr. Dogara has vowed to
remain silent in the face of
the allegations, saying he
would allow the House treat
them at institutional level.