Budget Padding: Jibrin Files Suit Against Dogara, Others.

Former Chairman, Appropriation Committee, House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has sued the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, his Deputy, Yusuf Lasun, and other principal officers of the lower chamber over an alleged plan to suspend him.

 

In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/595/2016, commenced by way of writ of summons and filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja on August 9, 2016, Jibrin  seeks principally to restrain the House of Representatives and its principal officers from giving effect to their alleged plot to suspend him as member of the House.

 

Jibrin, an All Progressives Congress (APC) legislator representing Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State, has also filed an ex-parte motion seeking, among others, an other restraining the defendants from taking steps to suspend him pending the determination of the substantive suit.

 

Listed as defendants in the suit are: The House of Representatives, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Yusuf Lasun, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, Leo Ogor, Herman Hembe, Umar Mohammed Bago, Zakari Mohammed, Chike Okafor, Dan Asuquo, Jagaba Adms, Haliru Jika and Uzoma Abonta.

 

Jibrin, in the substantive suit, seeks a declaration that the defendants are bound to comply with the provisions of Sections 49, 54, 56 and 60 of the 1999 Constitution and the Standing Orders of the House of Reps, regulating its sitting, procedure and other matters in the conduct of its legislative functions as provided in the Constitution and the Standing Orders made pursuant to the Constitution.

 

He also wants the court to make a declaration that the decision taken by the defendants at a meeting held on August 3, 2016 to suspend the plaintiff as a member of the House of Reps without granting him the right to fair hearing is unlawful.

 

The plaintiff stated, in a supporting affidavit, that Immediately the 3rd to 14 defendants (Dogara and other principal officers)  got wind of the petitions presented against them by the plaintiff to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and others, they held a meeting on August 3, 2016, where they allegedly resolved to suspend him immediately as member of the House of Reps.

 

He said that the defendants also agreed to urgently reconvene the House from its current recess “with a desperate agenda to suspend the plaintiff contrary to the Rules of the House”.

 

“That one of such meetings was held by the 3rd to 14 defendants at the residence of the 3rd defendant (Dogara) in Apo, Abuja on August 3, 2016.

 

“If the reliefs of the plaintiff are not granted, the plaintiff will be suspended as a member of the House of Reps, and this will greatly prejudice him and thousands of his constituents, who rely on him to afford them their due representations in the Federal Legislature,” Jibrin said.

 

It could not be confirmed when filing this story yesterday whether any proceedings had been conducted in court in relation to the motion ex-parte or whether a date had been set for hearing by the court’s current vacation judge, Justice Okon Abang.