Budget padding: Femi Gbajabiamila submits self to Police for investigation

Majority leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila yesterday submitted himself to the police for investigations over the alleged budget padding scandal currently rocking the House of Representatives.

Although he was not mentioned in the petition submitted by the Embattled chairman of the House committee on Appropriation Jibrin Abdulmumin, Gbajabiamila in a statement he released said he submitted himself for investigations so that his name could be cleared from the allegations since he is also a leader in the House. Read his statement after the cut…

I returned from the United States just yesterday 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. 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 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 Hon 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.