To pass the 2016 Appropriation Bill, Nigerian lawmakers engaged in what appeared as massive fraud, allocating obscene amounts of money to themselves to purportedly execute thousands of fictitious ‘constituency projects’, documents made available to PREMIUM TIMES have shown.

The documents were sent to this newspaper as tension intensified in the House of Representatives over the unfolding budget padding scandal.
The crisis was sparked by the removal of former appropriations committee chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin, from his post.
The Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, announced Mr. Jibrin’s departure in a statement on the floor of the lower chamber, saying he betrayed the trust reposed in him by his colleagues.
But in a blistering response, Mr. Jibrin denied the allegations, saying it was Mr. Dogara who in fact attempted to smuggle billions into the budget.
Mr. Jibrin also lashed out at Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuf; House Whip, Alhassan Doguwa; and Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, accusing them of colluding with Mr. Dogara to fraudulently insert up to N40 billion in new expenses for themselves from the National Assembly budget.
After several weeks of extensive negotiation and intrigues between the executive and the National Assembly, the 2016 budget was finally passed in April and President Buhari signed it into law on May 6.

But the damning documents sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday showed how lawmakers sought Speaker Dogara’s benevolence to approve various ‘projects’ for themselves in their respective constituencies.

From provision for solar-powered boreholes in Kano to an urgent need to feed police cadets in Bauchi, lawmakers inundated Mr. Jibrin with requests to pad the 2016 budget with mainly projects they had no business canvassing for.
Many lawmakers jumped on the gravy train and routed their requests for ‘constituency projects’ through Speaker Dogara, the documents showed.
One of the documents showed how a whopping N2.8 billion was earmarked for just 56 of such petty projects.
The documents also showed that Speaker Dogara arbitrarily approved amounts for the fraudulent projects without any systematic costing, indicating that the requesting lawmakers were never expected to execute the projects, but to pocket the allocations.

Jonathan Gbefwi, one of the lawmakers whose names appeared on the documents, did not answer PREMIUM TIMES’ repeated calls and SMS for comments. Three other lawmakers had their lines switched off.
Mr. Dogara has vowed to remain silent in the face of the allegations, saying he would allow the House treat them at institutional level.




http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/207473-documents-expose-nigerian-lawmakers-massive-budget-fraud.html

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yet another

finally

nothing new

Just imagine how criminal minded these people are. Every region has condemned the budget padding except the east. Gowon condemned it, Afenifere condemned it, but all igbo leaders have been silent. Yet their youths shout biafra as if angels will rule biafra and not their corrupt leaders who sees nothing wrong in condemming corruption

House of representa-thieves.These are the same legislathieves that are probing MDA's for corruption.

Hon herman hembe,the lawmaker who demanded bribe from s.e.c name is on this same budget padding scam.#500.000.000 for road rehabilitation.Why is his name always mentioned in a fraudulent matter?when did lawmakers start awarding contract?Now we know why budget for recurrent expenditure for nass is always higher than capital expenditure in the federation.

Those of us always wondering how Dino made so much money just being in the house of reps ..now we know

Love Machine:
hon herman hembe,the lawmaker who demand bribe from s.e.c is on this same scam.#500.000.000 for road rehabilitation.when did lawmakers start awarding contract?

That was just one look below you will see another request for 400 million to rehabilitate another road ..that brings his request total to 900 million ..Buhari needs to use this opportunity to purge the house of reps and re evaluate the role in today Nigeria ..they shouldn't be allowed to have inputs in Budget and this whole constituency fee thing should be stopped ASAP

hucienda:
In an administration of 'saints' and fighting kwarapshun? It's about to go down ...

Keke!

Oya, stop me here.

Take your money. No forget gimme my change.

Lolzz Guy I feel you-you no even want your rightful "change" again.You worry no be small.

Love Machine:
house of representa-thieves.these are the same politicians that are probing mda's for corruption.

That is if their own share is not given to them.My annoyance with APC is their outward sanctimonious appearance.Always saying "PDP this,PDP that" Well it's known that PDP have corrupt elements but APC are never saints.Now look at the so called "saints" of APC.

NASS should be reorganized, the Senate should be scrapped, we only need one chamber.

The only thing our youths know is to sit down and analyse. When will you guys actually stand up and fight for your right?

hucienda:
In an administration of 'saints' and fighting kwarapshun? It's about to go down ...

Keke!

Oya, stop me here.

Take your money. No forget gimme my change.

Can you answer a simple question? Do you think budget padding is new in Nigeria? Which of the past administrations exposed things like this in this country? In attempting to answer, you will discover that this your comment is senseless and bored out of frustration.

I wish Buhari would just throw caution to the wind and order the military to March into the Senate and house of assembly and grab these lawmakers by their Agbada and drag them into waiting black Maria trucks.

Anyone that protests on their behalf should be shot at with teargas and whipped with koboko to test if the money they collected was worth it.

ba7man:
I wish Buhari would just throw caution to the wind and order the military to March into the Senate and house of assembly and grab these lawmakers by their Agbada and drag them into waiting black Maria trucks.

Anyone that protests on their behalf should be shot at with teargas and whipped with koboko to test if the money they collected was worth it.

That's a slippery slope but right now I'm willing to go there.

LoveMachine:


That's a slippery slope but right now I'm willing to go there.

I would have been against it a while ago....... but it seems they're getting bolder.

They need to be sent a strong message through brutal actions.

E.g.. Being beaten and stripped naked while news cameras are running.

joborskill:
Just imagine how criminal minded these people are. Every region has condemned the budget padding except the east. Gowon condemned it, Afenifere condemned it, but all igbo leaders have been silent. Yet their youths shout biafra as if angels will rule biafra and not their corrupt leaders who sees nothing wrong in condemming corruption

For ur mind u make sense?

Abeg swerve joor!

ba7man:
I would have been against it a while ago....... but it seems they're getting bolder.

They need to be sent a strong message through brutal actions.

E.g.. Being beaten and stripped naked while news cameras are running.

I hear ya.

tunderay:
Can you answer a simple question? Do you think budget padding is new in Nigeria? Which of the past administrations exposed things like this in this country? In attempting to answer, you will discover that this your comment is senseless and bored out of frustration.

The time past constituency budget and execution by nass be investigated is now

Love Machine:
The time past constituency budget and execution by nass should be investigated is now

Exactly, this is what we we shuld be talking about, taking sides with political party in this case will cause more damage, this budget padding cuts across party lines. We need to nick it in the bud now that we have the chance. This nonsense is too much.

This was the rubbish going on Philippines until their Supreme Court ruled against it in 2013

NASS should be scrap

some one should help me to move this to front page because i don't know how to do that I received the shock of my life today from God he told me in a vision that do you know that 93.71% of the world population are not BORN AGAIN! that only 6.29% are truly born again. and that there are so many born again in the 93.71% that God did not recognised Evangelist Dare Bajomo pls ask for God grace

All kworrapt sir!

What's tha business?

Thank God for PMB. If they like, they should include rehabilitation of their grandma's house for N500M. No funds will be released to them as they have no power to execute a project. The era of PDP wastage of public funds is over. Only senseless and morally corrupt individuals will not support the anti-corruption fight of this administration.

By the way, what state is Herman Hembe from? That guy is brilliantly corrupt and am shocked he is still in that house. Seems he has bewitched his people.

Ok