The green chamber was recently filled with anxiety as the lawmakers ganged up to salvage the integrity of the assembly by ousting Dogara.
An impeachment plot to sack the embattled Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara who has been embroiled in a shameful
budget padding saga with a former Chairman of the Committee on
Appropriation, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin on Monday gained momentum.
The House of Reps members reportedly left their vacation for a
brief meeting in Abuja to discuss the fate of Dogara who has frequently
denied culpability in the budget padding saga.
Findings by Punch showed that the Majority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, however, doused the tension among factions by urging members to have faith in the leadership of the House under Dogara.
The All Progressives Congress lawmaker from Lagos State has kept sealed lips over the budget crisis since it started on July 21.
Gbajabiamila had refused to speak openly in support of Jibrin or Dogara, and the three other principal officers whom Jibrin had accused of padding the 2016 Budget. The others are the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Yussuff Lasun; the Chief Whip, Mr. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa; and the Minority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor.
It was learnt that some persons in the House in a text message that members of the House received on Monday accused Gbajabiamila of siding with Jibrin to remove Dogara because of his silence.
“This group circulated a text message among members, giving the impression that there would be a leadership change in the House.
“They attempted to re-open the old Dogara-Gbajabiamila rivalry and create mayhem,” a senior legislative official told a correspondent in Abuja on Monday.
The source of the text message was unknown as of the time of filing this report.
It read, “Plot to destabilise the leadership of the House of Reps has taken a new dimension as the Attorney-General of the Federation, working with Gbajabiamila, Jibrin and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has drafted charges to arraign and detain principal officers of the House so that the Transparency Group, who recently met with Tinubu’s wife, will effect a leadership change with Gbajabiamila as Speaker and Jibrin as the Deputy.
“This is why Jibrin did not mention Femi (Gbajabiamila) in his allegations. The 8th House won’t be anybody’s rubber stamp. We will resist them like the Senate resisted them.”
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