The House of Representatives today suspended the former Appropriations Committee Chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin without giving him fair hearing as required by law.
The whistle-blower of the budget padding fraud will be barred from the Green Chambers for 180 legislative days.
He is also banned from holding any position of responsibility in the House for the rest of the eighth National Assembly. He was also asked to tender a written apology to the House.
Chairman of the Ethics Committee, Nicolas Ossai, who presented the committee’s findings and recommendations, said the Committee found all the allegations against Jibrin to be true.
According to him all efforts to get the Jibrin to appear before the committee was fruitless.
This appears not to be the truth. Jibrin had demanded a public hearing, so that justice would not only be done but seen to be done. In a democracy, such hearings must not be in camera. Unfortunately, the committee for reasons that everybody knows refused.
Checkpointcharley sees Jibrin’s suspension as illegal and I encourage him to seek judicial review. This is simply political crucifixion orchestrated by the Speaker and the majority loyal to him.
When has it become a crime or misconduct in our country for a law-abiding citizen to report a crime?
The honourable path the Speaker and other principal officers fingered in the budget padding scam should have walked, would have been to submit themselves to scrutiny and allow the security agencies to do their work. It is only when the allegation turns out to be false that there could be talk of Jibrin bringing the House to disrepute.
Today is a very sad day for our democracy!
cpcnews.org 