By Terungwa Tyowase ,Abuja
There were discordant views, particularly within the rank of South West Senators over the seeming favourable disposition of Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and other key senators to lift the three-months suspension on Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central).
Senator Ningi was slammed the three-month suspension for accusing the Senate of padding the 2024 money law to the tune of N3.7 trillion .
Senator Ningi , a ranking Senator, elected on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party , PDP, had alleged that there were no projects and locations that captures the N3.7 trillion .
While Ningi was denied the opportunity to appear before the Senate panel on Ethics and privileges , he was granted time to defend his allegations before the committee of the whole with the Senate President Godswill Akpabio as chairman .
A development most civil society organisations and individuals , conversant with the workings of the Senate and its standing rules and procedures described as hasty and , designed to deny the Bauchi lawmaker the opportunity to prepare his defense .
Senator Ningi ‘s suspension which took effect in March means , he forfeits his salaries, allowances as well as deny him access to his office in the National Assembly for 90 days .
But his lawyer , Chief Femi Falana has written and given the Senate President a seven-day ultimatum to lift the suspension of Senator Ningi and restore his lawful entitlements or face legal actions .
Senator Akpabio, upon return to Nigeria from the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference in Geneva, gave an indication that Senator Ningi would be recalled earlier than the expiration of his suspension sometimes in June.
Uncomfortable with this development, some senators from the South West who championed the suspension of Senator Ningi have kicked against this move, Citizenship Daily gathered authoritatively.
Our source revealed that some of the South West Senators have expressed concerns and promised to confront the Senate leadership to stand it’s grounds and allow Senator Ningi completes his suspension to serve as deterrent to others.
They also said allowing the senator to serve his punishment will be a show of strength.
Our source revealed that one of the senators boasted to institute a case against senator Ningi for casting aspersions on his integrity, should the Senate President decides to bend backwards to lift senator Ningi’s suspension .
A senator from the South South who spoke to our correspondent in confidence said, ” I know there has been pressure on the Senate President from some northern elites and even some senators not to heat up the system and allow our colleague Ningi to resume, but how he will do it has being the issue, moreso that we are on recess and there is also pressure from particularly our colleagues from the South West not to bulge”.
He continued:
“They feel that lifting that suspension will present the leadership as being weak, but they have failed to appreciate the momentum that his suspension is gathering. And it is to be seen as being strong to be able to lift that suspension as soon as possible .
“Yes we have a southern senator’s forum, but the matter is beyound just having a forum. So it is important that we take advantage of the ultimatum of seven days by Femi Falana and recall him, maybe as soon as we resume on April 16”.
He added: “The chairman appropriations and other senators, including the Senate leader and others won’t support his recall, but it’s about the stability of the Senate. It is a game of numbers, how many are we from the South compared to those in the north? They have the number to destabilise this Senate and all these people urging the Senate President to stand his grounds know this. They won’t be able to impeach him but they can destabilise him sufficiently, so what’s the need.
“Afterall Ningi was not given fair hearing as far as I know. Somebody made a weighty allegation, and we should have allowed him time to prepare his defense before the appropriate committee and not the committee of the whole, now we are making him more popular and if he decides to speak the more, Nigerians will believe him, will you slam him another suspension? The National Assembly has a bad image and we must be careful in handling such matters. Personally I thought we would go into a closed-door session to deal with the matter, but some people felt it was better to handle it the way they did. Now we are here and we must revert it or face the backlash “.
“So it’s true there is pressure from some South West Senators, they want the suspension sustained but the reality is that the National Assembly is not the right institution to talk loudly about this kind of allegations, not just budget padding. How about our oversight functions, please we can’t win in the court of public opinion and that’s the fact as it stands today”, he said
