THE SUN
After four hours of heated arguments and debates, the Senate yesterday, suspended Abdul Ningi, for accusing the National Assembly of padding the 2024 budget, despite attempts by Northern lawmakers to rescue him.
Ningi, in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, made some startling revelations. He had claimed that Tinubu was operating two national budgets, one approved by the National Assembly, and the other unknown to the Parliament.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Monday, Ningi expressed fears that he might be suspended by his colleagues, following his media outburst, wherein he made serious allegations.
Trouble started at about 12 noon yesterday, when the Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriations, Adeola Olamilekan, raised some points of order, bordering on privileges, false claims and integrity of the Senate.
In his point of order, the Ogun West senator accused Ningi and Sumaila Kawu of misinforming Nigerians about the legal status of the 2024 budget, passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly.
In a motion titled: “Urgent Need to Address the False Allegations Against the Senate and the Presidency on the 2024 Appropriation Act by Sen. Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central),” Adeola claimed that Ningi’s outburst had put a dent on the image of the Senate and tPresident Bola Tinubu. He also claimed that allowing the allegations to go unchallenged would give credence to them.
“The Northern senators, represented by Senator Ningi, apparently gave wrong and incomplete information to their ‘consultants’ for them to arrive at a national budget of N25 trillion, instead of the passed N28.77 trillion budget.
“If there were no ulterior motives by Senator Ningi and some aggrieved senators targeted at derailing the APC administration of President Bola Tinubu and creating bickering between the executive and the legislature, he would have sought for clarifications on the discrepancies noted by their consultants for more enlightenment on budgeting and parliamentary processes before rushing to the press with misinformation.
“It is also ridiculous for the Northern senators to allege that the 2024 budget was lopsided “against the North and some parts of the South” in the story. It would have been helpful if evidence of such lopsidedness against the run of passing a national budget is provided.
READ THE FULL STORY IN THE SUN
