Jibrin runs to court for intervention against police, suspension from House

Former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has filed a suit before an Abuja Federal High Court, seeking to stop the lower legislative chambers from suspending him over his allegations against some principal officers.


Jibrin had on June 21, 2016, accused the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara; his deputy, Yusuf Lasun; Chief Whip, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa and the Minority Leader; Leo Ogor of attempting to pad the 2016 budget to the tune of over N40bn.

In the suit with no: FHC/ABJ/CS/539, Jibrin, who is championing the course to unseat Dogara is also seeking a court order stopping the police from arresting or questioning him over his allegations against the principal officers.

The lawmaker, in an affidavit attached to the suit, claimed 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.”

In another suit with No: FHC/ABJ/CS/595, the former Appropriation Chairman, sought judicial relief stopping the House from suspending him, pending the determination of the substantive suit.

In an affidavit supporting the suit, the lawmaker 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.”