Abdulmumin Jibrin, former chairman of the House of Representatives committee on finance and appropriation, failed to appear at the opening sitting of the hearing on his case.

The House of Representatives committee on Ethics and Privileges commenced hearing on the allegation of budget padding leveled against four leaders of the House by Jibrin. The committee commenced sitting on Friday.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara had on Wednesday referred Jibrin to the Ethics committee after a motion was moved by one of the legislators accusing Jibrin of bringing the house to disrepute by his scathing allegation of corruption against the speaker.

The motion had thrown the House into a rowdy session with one group chanting slogans in support of Dogara and another group insisting the speaker must step down.

The committee, headed by Nicholas Ossai was given one week to submit its report to the House.

But Jibrin in a statement maintained that he would only appear before the Ethics committee if the proceedings would be made public.

“I will take up the opportunity provided by the Ethics committee to state my case under the condition that the proceedings will be public and the Ethics committee will allow the Press, CSOs, NGOs, NLC, ASUU, NANS, NBA and the general public to witness the entire proceedings.

“This is the only way that I can have the comfort and confidence that the proceedings and outcome will not be manipulated or compromised. I am ready to appear before the committee even today if the proceedings will be public,” he stated.