Budget padding: Jibrin alleges Dogara desperately begged northern lawmakers for forgiveness

Sacked chairman of the House of Reps Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, yesterday alleged that embattled speaker of the House of Reps, Yakubu Dogara, desperately begged members of the northern caucus in the house for forgiveness over his alleged involvement in budget padding.

Abdulmumin who spoke with National Assembly reporters maintained that Dogara must step down from his seat so investigations into his alleged involvement in the budget padding scandal can take place

“The speaker should step down for proper investigation. Nobody is hunting him but he should step down for a committee to do its work and investigate the issue. The speaker begged us that we should forgive him. He also begged for the principal officers. He said that the House should forget what happened in the 2016 budget. But Hon. Sani Zoro told the speaker that the house will forgive him, but we have to accompany him to beg Nigerians. When he was begging, you could see the desperation on his face that he does not want to leave the seat. He loves the position of speaker so much. My question to him is, did he connive with the principal officers to steal the N40 billion? There are so many frauds in the budget that I did not even know until now. The speaker took four projects to his farm, including a fielder road”‎he said