Budget padding: Jibrin fled Nigeria, bags anti-corruption award in London

He has vowed never to return to Nigeria unless his safety can be guaranteed.

The embattled lawmaker who left Nigeria for London last week to receive an award and take his anti-corruption campaign to international community, made his decision public in an interview aired on the London based Ben TV, on Monday.

Jibrin explained that his decision to flee the country was informed by threats he said he had been receiving from some of his colleagues whom he accused of fraud.

According to him, a cabal in the House allegedly led by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, the Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun, the Chief Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, and the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, are using Herma Hembe to threaten him and members of his family.

The lawmaker also said the initial silence of President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter was a blessing in disguise because if the President had spoken much earlier he would have been accused of using him to fight the House leadership.

Jibrin said, “The situation currently at hand is different from the initial stage of the crisis. The silence of the Presidency is no longer sending the right message to Nigerians and the international community.”

He also revealed that he recently wrote to President Buhari, seeking an audience to brief him about the monumental fraud in the 2016 budget, the individual and systemic corruption in the House and some vital information on how to check corruption in the House and further fraud in the budget process and reform the House for the good of the country.

He said over 2,000 fraudulent projects worth over N284bn were inserted into the 2016 budget, adding that such fraud never happened in the history of the Nigerian legislature.

Jibrin, who exonerated himself from any wrongdoing in the appropriation process, said he had been in the House for five years and had never abused his office or corruptly enriched himself.

While reiterating his resolve to continue with the anti-corruption campaign, he revealed that he would now take the campaign to the international stage by reaching out to foreign governments, parliaments, media, civil society groups and Nigerians in Diaspora, to press for the arrest and prosecution of Dogara, Lasun, Doguwa, Ogor and other members of the corrupt cabal in the House of Representatives.

When contacted, the Special Adviser to the Speaker, Mr. Turaki Hassan, said he would “not dignify the suspended lawmaker with a response.”