Alleged budget padding: Dogara, others to appear before police investigative panel on Friday August 5th

The Nigeria Police Force have invited Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara, his deputy Yusuff Lasun, Chief Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor to appear before a Special investigative panel set up by the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris, to probe the allegations of padding the 2016 budget leveled against them by sacked chairman of the House committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin.

They are to appear before the panel on Friday August 5th. The invitation comes following a petition submitted to the police against the Speaker and the three other principal officers by Jibrin.

The 5-man investigative panel is to be led by Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Amodu Ali. A police source who spoke to the Nation said

"We have commenced full investigation into the N284billion budget padding in the House of Representatives based on a petition from Hon. Jibrin. A Special Investigative Panel (SIP), with a crack detective, AIG Amodu Ali as the chairman, is the one saddled with the responsibility of looking into the allegations in the petition. The same Ali uncovered the lid on the $620,000 bribery scam in the House for which a former Chairman of the House Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management, Mallam Farouk Lawan, and the Clerk of the committee, Mr. Boniface Emenalo were indicted. The case is in court. You will recall that Ali was deeply involved in the investigation of the $180million Halliburton scam. So, the SIP is led by an officer who is tested. As I am talking to you (4pm yesterday), a letter of invitation has been addressed and sent to the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the Chief Whip and the Minority Leader. They will be interrogated by the SIP on Friday. As a prelude to the invitation of the principal officers, the SIP chairman and members had a session with Jibrin on Tuesday. It was not a grilling session. But Jibrin furnished the team with vital information and a heap of documents to back up the petition he submitted on Monday. We are going into the merit or otherwise of the petition on Friday by inviting Dogara and three others. It is going to be a gradual thing but we will crack the padding controversy.”

Meanwhile security has been beefed up around Jibrin by the Department of State Security DSS.