The man championing the campaign to unseat Speaker Yakubu Dogara for alleged padding of the budget, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has himself gone to court to stop the police from arresting or questioning him over allegations bordering on claims of his complicity in the matter.
Besides that Saturday Vanguard has also obtained court papers in which Jibrin is also seeking judicial relief to stop the House of Representatives from reconvening or suspending him from the House of Representatives.
The two moves by Jibrin, indicative of the dramatic change in the shape of the battle in the House of Representatives. Jibrin had few days ago claimed to be on the moral high ground with sufficient support of members to remove the speaker.
In suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/539 between Jibrin on one part and The Nigeria Police, the Inspector General of Police, the Commissioner of Police, FCT, Dogara, Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun, Leo Ogor and the Attorney General of the Federation, Jibrin is asking the court to stop the police from arresting him.
In an affidavit attached to the suit, Jibrin alleged that the principal officers of the House named in the suit have “plotted with the 1st to 3rd respondents (Police, IG and Compol, FCT) to nab him and also put him out of circulation and so as to lay their hands on the said documents and destroy the evidence therein and avoid a leakage of their roles in the budget issue.”
Also in another suit with No. FHC/ABJ/CS/595 against the House of Representatives, the Clerk, the Speaker and 12 other members of the House, Jibrin is among other things seeking an order of the court stopping the House from suspending him from the House pending the determination of the substantive suit.
In an affidavit deposed in the Court, Jibrin said if the respondents/defendants “are not immediately restrained, he would be suspended as a member of the House and this will greatly prejudice him and thousands of his constituents who rely on him to afford them their due representations in the Federal legislature.”
In the said affidavit, the sacked Appropriations Committee Chairman said he was aware that they held meetings wherein they agreed to urgently reconvene the House which is presently on recess with a desperate agenda to suspend him as a member of the House.
This is in sharp contrast to series of statements Jibrin released in which he called for the reconvening of the House to address the allegations he raised against the Speaker and 13 others. He had alleged among others that he had the signatures of more 250 members seeking to remove Dogara from office.
(Vanguard)
