The Chief Whip of the House of Representative, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, has said the crisis rocking the House had gone beyond the All Progressives Congress. Allegations of budget padding and corruption leveled against the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and the leadership of the House by a former Chairman of its Appropriation Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has led to tension.
An intervention by their party, the APC, which has seen Jibrin stop his public attacks on Dogara, is not expected to change much, especially as Jibrin had already submitted petitions against the House’s leadership to anti-graft agencies.
Ado-Doguwa, who is one of the four principal officers accused by Jibrin, said while the intervention of the All Progressives Congress was appreciated, the matter was strictly not a political party’s case, but about the integrity of the legislature.
He said, “Of course, we would have always loved to respect any intervention by our great party (APC).
“But, the problem we have at hand is unfortunately not a political party’s case. It is not about Speaker Dogara; it is not also about Honourable Lasun or my humble self as the Chief Whip of the House, either.
“This matter is critically fundamental as it relates to the institutional integrity of the House of Representatives and National Assembly at large. You must therefore, understand that it is not purely an APC business.
“We would certainly have our hands tied in the event where the APC comes up with any so-called ‘political solutions’ that may contravene our institutional legislative codes.”
The matter is already being investigated by the police and that both Dogara and Jibrin did not honour the invitation to appear before the police team investigating the allegations on Friday, it was gathered.
A senior police officer, who is familiar with the ongoing investigation into the budget padding saga, said the police would continue with the probe regardless of the political solution being adopted by the APC.
The senior officer said it would be unfortunate if Nigerians allowed the allegations against the House leadership to be swept under the carpet.
It was learnt that the police will issue fresh invitations to Dogara and Jibrin this week.