By Abiola Olawale
The Senate on Tuesday announced the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi over allegations of padding in the 2024 Budget.
The resolution was made at the plenary presided over by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday
Ningi, from Bauchi Central Senatorial District, was suspended for three months after a long stormy session in the red chamber.
A member of the Appropriation Committee in the Senate, Jimoh Ibrahim, first moved the motion for Ningi’s suspension for 12 months over allegations of criminal misinformation and breach of peace in the National Assembly and the country by extension.
However, other lawmakers like Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong moved for the amendment of the motion by Ibrahim. Ekpenyong, who is from Cross River South Senatorial District, prayed for the reduction of the suspension.
Before the suspension, Akpabio had faulted Ningi’s earlier interview and for also granting a follow-up interview where he purportedly justified his initial claim of budget padding, saying the upper chamber has been subjected to ridicule as Nigerians are bashing the parliament.
In his words, “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 the budget passed a budget of N25 trillion but what we collect was N28 trillion.”
