>Barring last minute changes, indications emerged Sunday that
security details of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu
Dogara may be withdrawn on the orders of the Federal Government over the
controversy surrounding the 2016 budget,Vanguard News reports
It was also gathered that a document linking the Majority leader of
the House, Femi Gbajabimila with constituency projects worth over N4
billion which is domiciled in Osun and Niger States against the initial
N1.8 billion constituency projects allocated to him was in circulation.
This is just as the secretariat of the House Appropriation
Committee was on Sunday still under the watch of about four security
operatives.
Security sources hinted that the withdrawal of security aides to
the principal officers allegedly fingered in the budget brouhaha was
ensure that there was no obstruction on the course of investigations.
Investigations revealed that the security personnel that were
guiding the appropriation committee secretariat were not the regular
operatives from the National Assembly.
Meanwhile about 27 civil society organisations have raised the
alarm of alleged conspiracy with external forces against the leadership
of the House of Representatives, saying that if nothing was done to
apply caution, it would threaten the democracy in the country.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, the national coordinator of Human
Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko
alongside other 26 CSOs, said “It is disingenuous for the sacked
Appropriation committee chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin to make any claims
of exposing massive corruption in the House, accusing speaker Yakubu
Dogara of moves to personally smuggle N30bn into 2016 budget.”
He said that the understanding of the powers of the National
Assembly seems to say that the legislature is constitutionally empowered
to vet proposed budget since these elected officials were not rubber
stamps of the president.
-NewsPunch.org
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