The ousted Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, says the allegation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the National Assembly is populated by corrupt elements could not be dismissed.

The ousted Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, says the allegation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the National Assembly is populated by corrupt elements could not be dismissed.

He said there was what he called institutional corruption in the House of Representatives.

However, Jubrin, who accused the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and three other principal officers of the House of padding the 2016 budget to the tune of over N400bn, said he had never taken part in any corrupt practice since 2011 that he had been in the National Assembly.

He said this when he appeared on a live programme, Sunday Politics, on Channels Television on Sunday evening.

Asked by the presenter if the National Assembly was populated by corrupt  people, Jubrin said, “There is corruption; I would rather say there is corruption in the House of Representatives. Not only that there is corruption, there is institutional corruption and these are things that I can also prove and these are all the second layer of what my struggle is going to be about.”

Asked then if Obasanjo was right on his assertion that many members of the National Assembly were corrupt, Jubrin said, “Obasanjo is not completely wrong; there’s corruption. The only thing is that we keep living in denial but I’ve been part of that system and I know that there is corruption in that system and there’s also institutional corruption in that system. I’ve been there for five years and we’ve seen a lot but I’m happy that this trigger has happened.”

He, however, side-stepped the question on whether the 8th National Assembly was the most corrupt since 2011 that he had been in the National Assembly.

He also said he had no regrets betraying his colleagues in the House of Representatives, vowing that what he would say would cause a revolution in the National Assembly.

“If these allegations are considered betrayal, so be it,” he said.

He, however, denied the allegation that he also inserted N4.1bn projects into the budget, saying, “The N4.1bn project is a creation, is a blackmail by the Speaker himself and a few other principal officers.”