Following pressure from members of the House, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, may suspend former Appropriation Committee chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin, the Nations reports.

According to sources who spoke to the paper, members of the House had told Dogara to choose between them and Jibrin in light of the embarrassment brought on the House, following the 2016 Budget scandal.

Jibrin had resigned from his position as the Appropriation committee chairman and has accused the three principal officers of the House of padding the budget.

The report also said that members of the House were unhappy that they were sidelined by Jibrin and his Senate counterpart, Senator Danjuma Goje.

A principal officer of the House, who spoke to the Nation on the basis of anonymity, said, “You can ask any member of the House, the padding of the budget created an image crisis for the National Assembly, especially the House.

“Members were angry and, at a point, they asked Dogara to choose between them and Jibrin. The Speaker’s hands were tied but he was, however, tactical in not removing Jibrin immediately after the Appropriation Bill was passed into law.

“We kept on mounting pressure on him to remove Jibrin or else he will pay for it.

“It became unbearable when Jibrin was allegedly summoning heads of MDAs to his house on the budget. Members also resorted to going cap in hand to Jibrin for inclusion of some projects in the budget.

“When President Muhammadu Buhari returned the budget and the National Assembly was asked to review the padded areas, the Speaker called Jibrin for an update. But in what appeared a snub, he told Dogara, ‘Will you come down to my house to see what we are doing?’ He disrespected the Speaker who appointed him into office.”

He further said that “Certainly, Jibrin will go on suspension for his affront against the leadership of the House. We won’t tolerate indiscipline.”

Another senior member of the House noted that trouble began for Jibrin when the Presidency and the National Assembly agreed to increase the allocations for the army and air force.

“They were claiming for credit for the increase in the votes for the Army and the Air Force. Besides, members of the Appropriation Committee were shocked that there was subtle demand for gratification by a member.”

“The Committee was uncoordinated because of Jibrin’s attitude. In fact, most members of the committee had little input into the budget,” the source said, adding,

“The Executive arm was also tired of Jibrin’s misdemeanour. At a point, some members of the Executive were always asking Dogara, ‘when will you remove that boy? Won’t there be sanctions from the House for those involved in budget padding?’ We got to this sorry state.”

Another lawmaker said, “We warned the Speaker against appointing Jibrin as the chairman of the Appropriation Committee because when he headed the Committee on Finance, his action made ex-Speaker Aminu Tambuwal to weep one day over a budgetary matter. This incident happened in the 7th National Assembly.

“Ex-Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso prevailed on the former Speaker not to suspend Jibrin. Tambuwal’s brother, Kwamkwaso’s bosom friend and the ex-governor asked his friend to beg the ex-Speaker to forgive Jibrin.

“All these people are alive; you can crosscheck these facts.”