‘Budget signed by Buhari not padded’
Members of the Gombe State Caucus of the
House of Representatives on Thursday disassociated themselves from the
allegations of “budget padding”, which the former Chairman, Committee on
Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, made against the Speaker, Mr.
Yakubu Dogara, and three other principal officers.
The other three are the Deputy Speaker,
Mr. Yussuff Lasun ; the Chief Whip, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa; and the
Minority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor.
The caucus said the 2016 Appropriation
Act was duly signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, and could no
longer be described as padded.
It noted that it was “criminal” and “illegal” for anybody to call an exiting law a padded law.
“Failure to even implement any part of the Act is an illegality.
“Mr. President himself, who signed the
Act, knows it. The only way anything can be dropped from that Act is by
referral to the same National Assembly to make any changes”, one of the
members of the caucus, Mr. Yunusa Ahmad-Abubakar, told a news conference
in Abuja.
The caucus, which is made up six
members, expressed surprise that Jibrin would describe a law as padded
soon after he was sacked “over the offence of unlawfully inflating the
budget in his own favour.”
The group also stated that the letters
Jibrin released to the public were responses to requests he sent to
members asking them to nominate projects that they wished to be included
in the budget for their constituencies.
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