Budget Padding: It’s a family affair

Budget Padding: It’s a family affair – APC

Jibrin and Dogara: Allies Torn apart by budget padding scandal

The All Progressives Congress (APC) said it would not sanction House of Representatives Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara, or Rep. Abdulmumuni Jibrin over allegations of budget padding in the lower chamber.

Deputy National Chairman of the party, Mr Lawal Shuaibu, said this while briefing newsmen at the National Secretariat of the party on Thursday in Abuja.

Quoting Article 7, sub-section 5 of APC Constitution, Shuaibu said that the party had the power to do certain things but that whatever was going to be done would not be revealed to the public.

He said, “what is padding? The party does not sanction anybody on that.

“What concerns us is where any member contravenes the party’s Constitution by his conduct. That is why I refer you to Article 7 sub-section 5 of our party constitution.

“We are not a law enforcement organisation; we don’t enforce laws. We only ensure that the Constitution is complied with.

“Any member of the party is answerable to the party and answerable to its Constitution.

“The two members that are subjected to this are elected or appointed members of the party, including those that are holding public office.”

He said that although the party would not sweep the matter “under the carpet, it won’t be in the public gallery’’.

Clearing the air on its main source of finance, the deputy chairman said that the party solely relied on the N100 registration fee from about 12.7 million members in its data base.

“We have a credible source of funding; every member of APC in this country is expected to pay N100. So far, on our data base we have 12.7 million registered members.

“Others are still waiting for us to just open our portal to do their membership registration.

“Assuming those on our data base paid their membership levy, just multiply N100 by 12.7 million members and you know how much we get. So, we have our way of sourcing for fund.’’

On the recent outburst of a Kano-based chieftain of the party over President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Shuaibu said “that man who claimed to be our chairman in Kano is unknown to us as a party.

“Go to the directorate of organisation of our party here and demand to know who our state chairman there is; if you check our data base you will see the name of our state chairman in Kano state.

“That person who made that statement is not our member; we actually don’t even know him, to be very honest.”

He announced that a committee had been set up to review the party’s constitution before a mini-convention will hold.

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