NASS leaders

Budget Padding: NASS Leadership On Cliff Edge

– Time Ticks For Saraki/Dogara, As Tension Envelops Assembly
– The Tale Of Intrigues And Blackmail In Dogara’s Ouster Plot

By Lateef BANGBOSHE, Abuja

It is no longer probable that both President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, are facing some sorts of persecution from their own, over their seeming recalcitrance to party instructions over the leadership of the National Assembly, when they contested and emerged the leaders of the two chambers.
While Saraki has been fighting from several fronts to keep his job and save his neck, for being the most vocal of the duo, it did initially appear as if Yakubu Dogara had been let off the hook. But recent events point to the fact that, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC has not really forgiven Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the budget padding controversy seems to have provided an ample opportunity for them to take their pound of flesh.
But for the fact that the national Assembly is on a break, we may have seen something akin to Amaka Igwe’s epic soap opera, fuji House of Commotion, as the plot to remove Mr. Yakubu Dogara, the embattled Speaker of the House of Representatives has assumed another dimension with some Lawmakers in the lower legislatives Chamber accusing Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the plot to throw the House into confusion. It was gathered that many members of the House were ruffled, forcing many to cut short their vacations to Abuja where the plot was discussed early this week.
It would be recalled that Hon. Abdulmumuni Jibrin, the former Chairman House Committee on appropriation acting a script by forces oppose to the Leadership of the National Assembly on the July 21 after his un ceremonious removal as the Chairman of the Committee, for an alleged incompetence accused the Speaker Mr. Yakubu Dogara and the Leadership of the House of padding the 2016 budget.
The Other leaders accused include the Deputy Speaker Yussuf Lasun, the Chief whip Mr. Alhassan Ado Dogowa and the Minority Leader Mr. Leo Ogor.
Those familiar with the politics of the House are presently tracing the politics that led to the emergence of the Yakubu Dogara Led leadership and the attendant smoldering rage that has dominated the activities of the House.
According to a ranking member of the House who does not want his name mentioned “It is an open secret that the House since the election of Dogara, has been torn between those opposed to his emergence and those in support of the Femi Gbajabiamila leadership, but unlike the Senate where the Tinubu factor has remained a destabilizing factor, Dogara has been sitting on the edge until Hon. Jibrin became a pawn in the game to change the Leadership”. He said.
Femi Gbajabiamila, the lawmaker from Lagos state was the anointed Lawmaker by the Tinubu led APC forces in the presidency for the office of the Speakership but was roundly defeated by Dogara. Femi Gbajabiamila, has deliberately refused to speak openly in support of Jibrin, Dogara and the other officers who Jibrin had accused of padding the 2016 budget.
If the text messages going round is anything to believe, the Attorney General of the Federation and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, both Tinubu lackeys, have drafted charges to arraign and detain the principal officers of the House.


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