Senate suspends Ningi for three months
By Ishaya Ibrahim
The Senate, on Tuesday, suspended Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP – Bauchi Central) over his claim that the National Assembly padded the 2024 budget with a whooping sum of N3 trillion.
He was suspended at the plenary session held on Tuesday, March 12 at the Red Chamber.
The session was presided over by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who lamented that the integrity of the Senate has been totally damaged.
Akpabio said the upper chamber has been subjected to ridicule as Nigerians are bashing the parliament.
He faulted Ningi’s earlier interview and for also granting a follow-up interview where he justified his initial claim of budget padding.
“Nigerians are bashing the Senate. Many Nigerians will never in future come back to respect this chamber. The integrity of this chamber has been totally damaged and we wanted you to repair it with your speech,” he said.
“Instead of that, you said you have more documents to prove what you are saying. This thing is in the public glare. I have not received full details up to this moment. If you had given me full details, I would have been able to know what you know.
“So far, what you know is only known to you, it is not known to any other person. I don’t know how you rushed to the press carrying different versions. The social media is very fast. From Canada, the United States, everywhere, the story was budget padding by the Senate.
“I can quote a section of the Premium Times that said ‘this is the highest level of budget padding in Nigeria’s history where a budget of N25 trillion was passed but what we collect was N28 trillion.”
The senate president recalled that President Tinubu presented a budget proposal of N27.5 trillion to the National Assembly last November.
Meanwhile, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele from Ekiti Central Senatorial District has described as a “civilian coup”, claims made by Senator Abdul Ningi that the 2024 Budget passed by the Senate was padded.
A furious Bamidele, who is also the Majority Leader of the upper chamber, alleged that Ningi, who represents Bauchi Central Senatorial District, attempted to unseat Senate President Godswill Akpabio by allegedly inciting the Northern Senators’ Forum against Akpabio, a southern senator, who took over from Ahmad Lawan, a northerner.
Before Ningi’s suspension, the Senate chamber turned rowdy after a senator alleged that some privileged principal members of the Red Chamber received N500 million as peck of office while others didn’t.
The disclosure was made during the debate on the allegation by Senator Ningi that at least N3 trillion in the 2024 Budget was floating and not tied to any project.
Ningi, while defending his allegation, further alleged that the salary of the Senate President is unknown by other members. He said Akpabio knows their salaries.
He further alleged that while they have five aides each, the number of aides the Senate President has is unknown.
Ningi also alleged that some senatorial districts received N120 billion allocation while his senatorial district received N2 billion.
One of the senators who spoke during the debate added more fuel to an already tensed situation when he alleged that some principal officers received N500 million each, others didn’t.
The revelation caused commotion in the Senate with Akpabio rising on his feet to read out the riot act on any member who refused to be orderly.
After calm was restored, the N500 million revelation was left unattended to in the subsequent allegation.
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