Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday disclosed that he has submitted himself to Nigeria Police authorities for proper investigation in the allegation of budget padding levelled against some principal officers of the House as well as some committee chairmen.
The Majority Leader in a statement, said that he had to submit himself to police for investigation after it was alleged that he was the one sponsoring Honourable Jibrin against the Speaker, Honourable Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers.
Explaining, Honourable Gbajabiamila said, “I returned from the United States just yesterday [Thursday] after a three-week break. I called the Speaker a day before my return to urgently fix a principal officers meeting so we could address the several allegations made by Hon Jibrin.”
The statement reads in part: “At the meeting, Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun , Chief Whip, Hon Ado Dogwa and Minority Leader, Hon Leo Ogor passionately and vigorously clearly stated their innocence.
“A prepared text was read and we all agreed to sign. For me as the Leader of the House, I felt it was important to give them the benefit of the doubt, which in any case, is what our constitution says. The decision to relieve Hon Jibrin was indeed a collective decision of which I was a part of.
“However, I gave a caveat before the press release was signed, I made it clear to my colleagues in the leadership that because somehow my name had been sullied in all of this and fake documents and publications had been put out there in traditional and social media which stated I was also involved in the so-called padding of the budget, that I would need to clear my name and that even though no petition was filed against me by Hon Jibrin and no invitation was extended to me by the police, I would be submitting myself on my own volition to the police for investigation.
“This is important to me as insinuations have been made from many quarters that, I along with others, were sponsoring Honourable Jibrin. I have just this afternoon met with the police authorities for a proper and thorough investigation of my role if any in this whole bizzare episode,” the statement concluded.