The Secretariat of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation is now a no go area. The office, located in Room 16, White House at the National Assembly Complex, was sealed off yesterday by security men as claims and counter claims intensified over alleged padding of the 2016 budget by principal officers of the Green Chamber of the NASS.
Staff and members of the Committee were denied access to the office by a team of four security men said to be from the Department of State Security (DSS). The DSS is the latest of the security agencies after the Police to wade into the controversy over padding of the 2016 budget by the House.
Sacked Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, sparked the controversy when he alleged that he was fired by Speaker Yakubu Dogara because he refused his bidding and that of Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun; Majority Whip Alhassan Doguwa; and Minority Whip Leo Ogor to pad the budget to the tune of N40b.