Budget padding: Dogara suffers heavy attack

– Sagay, Ngige and Odumakin slam Speaker Yakubu Dogara for his comment that he can’t be probed over alleged 2016 budget padding, because of the immunity accorded to him

– The trio disclosed that nobody is exempted from prosecution or interrogation

Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House of Representatives, has been criticized over his comment that he cannot be investigated or interrogated over alleged 2016 budget padding.

According to the Professor Itse Sagay, chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption, Dogara goofed as nobody is exempted from prosecution or interrogation, Vanguard reports.

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Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara

He said: “There is no such thing. There is no such legal status in the country. Any other person apart from the President, Vice President, governor and deputy governor can be investigated and prosecuted. Apart from those two groups, there is no other person in this country, who enjoys any form of immunity against investigation, prosecution and interrogation. So, what he is saying is wrong.”

Also speaking, Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN, said: “If truly he said that, it is wrong because the Police can investigate anyone. That is consistent with what I said on Fayose’s case that he can be investigated but not prosecuted because of immunity. The Speaker does not have immunity like Fayose but he can be investigated by the Police but not indicted on the pages of the newspaper. Even Buhari who is protected by immunity can be investigated by the Police but not prosecuted. The Police can do that by following due process. They can write to the Clerk of the House, who is the administrative head of the House, if they want to do that.”

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On his part, Yinka Odumakin, the national publicity secretary of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, said the alleged budget scam had been turned to a family affair.

“You should be able to put two and two together. The confidence that he cannot be interrogated stems from the fact that the Presidency has said that there was no padded budget. So, it is clear that this is a family affair. There are probably some political calculations about this. Some people must have reasoned that if this reaches a logical conclusion and Dogara steps down, it will alter power rotations in the chambers. The party came in first to wade into the matter, second, the Presidency said it was not aware of any padded budget. So, what are we waiting for? The matter is over.”

For three weeks running, Dogara had been locked in fierce political war with Abdulmumin Jibrin, a Kano lawmaker who was removed as chairman of House Committee on Appropriation.

The erstwhile chairman of the House of Representatives committee on appropriations had accused the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, and some officers of the House of padding the 2016 budget last month.

He accused Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor of asking him to allocate to them N40 billion of the N100 billion allocation for members’ constituency projects.

Jibrin said the speaker masterminded the insertion of fictitious subjects into the budget, an allegation Dogara denied.

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