Nigerian parliament suspends lawmaker over budget padding scandal
Xinhua, September 29, 2016 Adjust font size:
The Nigerian parliament on Wednesday said it has suspended a national lawmaker who accused its leadership of tampering with the country's 2016 budget.
The parliament said Representative Abdulmumin Jibrin has been suspended for 180 legislative days, following a probe of his allegation.
His suspension is likely to last more than 12 months, since the Nigerian House of Representatives seats for only three days in a week.
The Nigerian parliament also ruled that the suspended member will not be given any privilege to hold a position of responsibility for the span of the current National Assembly.
Jibrin, a former chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, had accused the Nigerian parliament speaker, Yakubu Dogara and some principal officers of padding the 2016 national budget.
He also demanded that Dogara be made to resign, to allow investigations to be conducted into the matter.
The parliament described the lawmaker's allegation as "sundry act of misconduct" against the members and institution of the House of Representatives.
The House accused the suspended lawmaker of embarking on a campaign of calumny and denigration by making publications in the media and internet against the entire membership of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly as an institution. Endit