by Samuel Ogundipe,
A former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has released more documents purporting to show widespread fraudulent manipulation of the 2016 budget by lawmakers.
Mr. Jibrin, who was removed from his post last week, has accused the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and three other principal officers, of padding the budget with fake projects.
He has released documents showing how lawmakers applied for, or received approvals for the so-called constituency projects.
The latest documents, which Mr. Jibrin made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday, are expected to further complicate issues for Mr. Dogara, his deputy, Yusuf Lasun, and other lawmakers caught in the unfolding budget padding scandal.
The documents purport to show how Mr. Lasun, who chaired the committee that approved the final House version of the budget, arbitrarily earmarked funds for “fictitious” projects to different lawmakers by embedding them in genuine projects proposed by the executive for ministries, departments and agencies.
In one of the documents, which Mr. Jibrin said was written by Mr. Lasun, the deputy speaker wrote that projects worth up to N594 million should be embedded in the Ministries of Agriculture, Labour and Trade and Investment as well as the National Boundary Commission for Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa and Deputy House Leader, Buba Jibrin.
Mr. Jibrin said the fraud totalled billions of naira.
See the three documents below:
