ABUJA—CHAIRMAN House of Representatives Committee on Ethics and Privileges, Ossai Nicholas Ossai, has said former Appropriation Committee Chairman, Abdulmunin Jibrin, will get a fair trial if he appears before his committee over his constituents threat to recall him.
Ossai spoke in a chat with Vanguard. Ossai Nicholas Ossai, Recall that his constituents from Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency in Kano State had on December 7, 2016 protested against Jibrin at the National Assembly Complex, demanding for his recall.
According to Ossai; “The issue is that my committee can receive petitions from anybody against any member. If you are filing a petition you must swear to an affidavit in court. But if a member is writing against another member, he/she may not swear.
So, in that respect, I received those two complaints. Knowing full well that Jibrin is on suspension, all we needed to do was to get permission from the House to enable us to invite him to come. You see, it is a complete principle of fair hearing. You don’t just adjudicate on somebody’s case without him being there. It was on that basis that we brought that motion.
“I think it is for his own good that we brought that motion, to enable him time to prepare his own reaction. When we send him the invitation, we are also going to send him a copy of each of those petitions, so that he can prepare his argument very well. You know, that is the purpose of fair hearing.
I don’t want to join issues with him especially on his reaction. For the record, I am not being pressurised to do anything. But the most important thing is that I must attend to every petition submitted to the committee.
“The committee normally does its things in the atmosphere of justice and fairness. Like we have seen, we always carry the press along in whatever we are doing, so that every step, you and the public would know the action we are taking. It is not an issue that we will hide and bring out recommendations; I don’t think it is possible that way.
Asked why his committee failed to attend to Jibrin’s petitions, he said: “I think that is not true. Jibrin never forwarded any petition to my committee. I challenge him on this, but he never did. He submitted outside the National Assembly so the National assembly cannot deal on such issues that are not before it.
“The committee can only deal on issues that are before it. You see, before the breaches were brought to my committee, he never brought any petition to my committee.
“Probably, he felt the committee will not be able to do justice to his complaints, but that’s not supposed to be so. You do your own and allow the committee to do it is own. He has not fulfilled that mandate of submitting a petition to the House. So, at any particular point in time, his petition reaches my committee we will attend to it.
” On whether the fresh action was not influenced by those Jibrin is pointing accusing finger at, Ossai said: “I that is not true. The Speaker is not the one who signed the petition. They are people from his constituency, 10 of them.
I read the names and they are people from his local government or constituency. The names are there and their passports are also attached as well as their signatures. And they went to court to swear an affidavit. If someone has gone to the extent of swearing an affidavit, he knows the implication of swearing an affidavit.
Let me show you the affidavit. (He displayed the document). You can see the signatures. These are the signatures of the petitioners; there is no single principal officer’s name or signature here.
“Neither can you see that of Mr. Ossai. You can also see that of the National Youth Council of Nigeria. “They also swore an affidavit, and they already got the form from the Code of Conduct where they alleged that Jibrin lied in the form he filled. You can see the picture of the petitioner; you can see the Magistrate Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja. So how can I see these two things and decide to hide them?”
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