Budget padding: CSOs want Sen. Barau Jibrin sacked as Senate committee chair on appropriation

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

Some civil society organisations on Thursday, December 16, 2021, called on Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan to sack the chairman Senate committee on appropriation, Senator Barau Jibrin.

The groups, Guidance of Democracy and Development Initiative (GDDI) and Partners for Legislative Agenda in Nigeria (PLAN) stated that cannot remain the chairman of the committee in the face of the report of his involvement in budget padding.

Leaders of the group, Comrade Danesi Momoh Prince of GDDI and Comrade Igwe Ude-Umanta, noted that Senator Jibrin’s continuous leadership of such a sensitive committee is in variance with the All Progressives Congress anti-corruption crusade.

‘’It is therefore incumbent on you as the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to rise to the moral and patriotic occasion before you and sack the indicted Senator,’’ the groups told Lawan.

They further said:

‘’We are very saddened about the manifestation of corruption in Nigeria in its instituted forms. At a period of undeniable economic downturn and financial austerity for the federal government, it is suffocating to live with the fact that as long as a character like Senator Barau Jibrin chairs the Appropriation Committee of the Senate, budget padding will be the order of the day.

‘’The 2020 Appropriation Act is full of padded expenditures which have now been pronounced by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as failing in all the integrity tests of accepted procedures in procurement and an aberration to the provisions of the Procurement Act.

‘’In the reported Constituency and Executive Tracking Exercise Phase 3 Report of the ICPC, it has become obvious that Senator Barau Jibrin has bestrode our national budget as a monstrous Colossus, creating expenditures that can only be criminally explained, or accounted for.

‘’And expectedly, the Senator has not denied the allegations in the ICPC report against him. A man who is found to have grossly abused our National Budget should not by any moral compass be allowed to continue to superintend over the legislative scrutiny of our National Budget.

‘’It is no longer news that various contract scams have been traced to Sinity Nig. Ltd, Engr Jibril Electrical Engineering and Talgo Luxury Estate Investment Nig. Ltd (companies owned by Senator Jibrin, and his family members, or in which he has serious stakes in).