Kinsmen Want Dogara to Resign over Budget Padding

Kinsmen Want Dogara to Resign over Budget Padding

 

Hundreds of youths and women from 'Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro federal constituency of Bauchi State today staged a peaceful demonstration in Dass demanding that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, resign from his position over the alleged budget padding scandal  rocking the lower chamber, and come back to the constituency to explain his role in the matter.

 

The demonstrators who called themselves 'Concerned Citizens of Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro' carried placards with various inscriptions such as 'Dogara should step aside and 'Dogara must come back',  alleged that the recent assertion by the Speaker that padding is not an offence proved that he was indeed involved in the saga and has by so doing, "breached the trust of the constituents and the state in general."

 

Addressing journalists at the end of the protest, leader of the group, Saddam Muhammad Shanka, stated that the concerned citizens in the federal constituency were shocked by the matter because it allegedly involved their representative in the National Assembly, stressing that  Dogara and the former chairman of the appropriation committee, Abdulmuminu Jibrin, should resign to allow relevant authorities to carry out proper investigations into the issue.

 

According to the group, "It is clear that recent development at the House has been a cause of great concern to every patriotic citizen of this country, Bauchi State and indeed this constituency in particular, hence the need for the Speaker to come back home and explain to us his role in that budget scandal.''

 

Shanka lamented that if the outcome of the on-going investigation of the budget padding allegation being leveled against Dogara is substantiated, the good political image of Bauchi State as a whole and the Nigeria's first Prime Minister's constituency will be greatly tarnished calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to swing into action over the matter.

 

" It is obvious that the eighth House of Representatives under Dogara does not mean well for this country, hence our resolve to pass a vote of no confidence in Dogara's both leadership and membership of the House. "We cannot fold our arms and allow things to continue this way. He is in the House to represent his constituency, to protect our interest and bring development to our constituency in particular and our dear state by extension not to pursue his selfish political interest. Enough is enough," Shanka stated.