By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
Amidst tension and uproar yesterday, the Senate suspended Senator Abdul Ningi, the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, for three months over allegations of budget padding leveled against the National Assembly.
However, he was given an opportunity to write an apology letter so that he could be recalled before the three-month period expired.
The decision to suspend the Peoples Democratic Party member representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District was a response to a motion by Senator Solomon Adeola, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation.
The All Progressives Congress member from Ogun West Senatorial District said Ningi breached his privilege when he accused the Senate of padding the 2023 National Budget with over N3trn.
He also said the embattled Senator claimed in an interview he granted the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that projects in the 2024 National Budget were skewed towards the southern part of Nigeria.
In his motion, Adeola drew his colleagues’ attention to Ningi’s claims that a team of financial experts hired by the NSF had discovered that N3.7trn in the budget could not be traced to any project, nor was the location indicated.
Based on the instructions of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, the Ogun West Senator read the transcribed version of the interview granted by Ningi in Hausa Language and notarized at a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The Appropriation Committee Chairman then gave details of the N3trn that the NSF Chairman claimed was padded.
He explained that the amount was statutory transfers to some arms and agencies of government as a first-line charge, which does not require details.
Adeola said his motion was of urgent national importance and stressed the need to address Ningi’s false allegations against the Senate and the Presidency regarding the 2024 Appropriation Act.
He then gave the breakdown of the N3ttrn contained in the statutory transfers.
He said the 2024 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was N27.55trn, and the National Assembly eventually passed an Appropriation Act of N28.77trn, an increase of N1.2trn.
He said the increase, which the president assented to, came from the upward adjustment of the benchmark exchange rate from N750 -$1 to N800- $1 and an increase in the Revenue of Government-Owned Enterprises.
Adeola added that this increase was allocated to some critical sectors based on requests from the Executive and judiciary.
He said there was no way the 2024 Budget could have been padded by the phantom N3trn of Ningi and his consultants.
He said Ningi gave their’ consultants’ wrong and incomplete information, which led them to arrive at a national budget of N25trn instead of the passed N28.77trn budget.
He said, “If there were no ulterior motives by 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.”
Senate explains alleged N3trn 2024 budget padding
*’His allegations were wild and unsubstantiated’
He said it was apparent that a ranking senator of Senator Ningi’s standing who should be conversant with the budgetary processes and nuances of the National Assembly, having served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate as a parliamentarian, is entirely ignorant of the process.
He said, “For the records, the N25trn Senator Ningi and his ‘consultants’ presented the budget (N25.45trn approximately) being implemented by the Executive as the details of the budgets of all MDAs.
“It is unfortunate and regrettable that Senator Ningi and his consultants should have taken into account that the budgets of some bodies should be captured in the details but in the summary of the Appropriation Act as passed.
“All appropriations for Statutory Transfers, Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs), and TETFUND are only in the summary of the Act and not in the details.
“The total sums of these appropriations captured in the summary and not in details as it is constitutional and in line with our budgetary process is N3.32trn.”
He said, “A simple calculation by Senator Ningi and his ‘consultants’ of the MDA details and the figures of Statutory Transfers, GOEs, and TETFUND in the summary would amount to exactly the figures of the passed 2024 Appropriation of N28.77trn.
“So, the Executive is implementing the 2024 Appropriation Act as passed by the National Assembly, not the dual budgets that Senator Ningi is leading the Nigerian public to believe.
“The budget as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, including the Northern Senators, is being implemented as passed, and any claim to the contrary is in the imagination of those who want to create a national division for some ulterior motives yet to be ascertained,” he added.
He gave the details of the N3.32trn to include: National Judicial Council N341,625,739,236; National Assembly N 344,852,880,669; Public Complaints Commission N14,460,000,000; Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) N 40,000,000,000
Others are, Government-Owned Enterprises (Recurrent) N1,059,617,780,421; Tetfund (Recurrent) N35,000,000,000; Government-Owned Enterprises (Capital) N820,908,398,828; Tetfund (Capital) N665,000,000,000
The total is N 3,321,464,799,154, which Ningi claimed was missing
Adeola accordingly prayed that under Order 1(b) of the Senate Standing Order 2023 (as Amended), the Senate should allow immediate deliberation of the matter and take appropriate action deemed fit in the overriding public interest and as a matter of urgent public importance to prevent break down of law and order.
He also prayed that further necessary steps should be taken to correct the wrong impression of the 2024 budget in the public domain created by Senator Abdul Ningi’s BBC interview and other national media houses and social media platforms and amplified by Senator Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu through his Facebook account and other social media platforms.
He also urged the Senate to take any further decision it deemed fit and proper to safeguard the integrity of the 2024 budget, which is pivotal to revamping our economy.
Senator Joel Thomas seconded his motion.
Akpabio called on Ningi to defend himself but maintained that the money was missing.
He also accused the presiding officers of the National Assembly of running an elaborate government through a budget shrouded in secrecy.
There were a series of altercations among the senators, causing an uproar before the Senate President calmed the situation by threatening to sanction any member who spoke without being recognized by him.
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim devised an additional prayer seeking Ningi’s suspension for one year. The prayer was amended to three months, and it was passed by the Senate.
The Senate President ruled on it, and the sergeant at arms walked Ningi out of the chamber.
Earlier, all attempts by some ranking senators to prevail on Ningi to apologise did not succeed.
Some ranking senators clashed against each other over whether Ningi should apologise, with Senator Ndume leading those urging him to do so.
*Senate leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, says it was a failed plot against Akpabio
However, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, alleged that Ningi was acting according to the script of some people who he said were working towards the impeachment of the Senate President before June this year.
An enraged Bamidele said, “We must never accept any apology from Senator Ningi.
“It is ridiculous to do so. He lied deliberately. Mr Senate President, you’re occupying that seat 40 years after a South-South person occupied it.
“The last time a Southerner was there was during Obasanjo, and they were changed every time. It was only stable when it returned to the north. David Mark spent eight years, Saraki completed four years, and Lawan spent four years.
“Don’t be deceived; the June 2023 Senate presidential election losers are still angry. Some have accepted it, but a few haven’t.
“They have plotted to remove you before June 2024. That is why you must not allow Ningi’s deliberate mischief to go away. He did it on purpose. He knew he was lying. He set the public against you, and he will do it again. We must apply our sanction.”
Tempers rose during the motion’s deliberations, which included fresh revelations about how some senior senators received an N500m allocation from the budget.
While contributing to the debate, the Senator representing Cross River North, Agom Jarigbe, said some ranking senators recently received N500m intervention while some, including him, received nothing.
He said, “All of us are culpable. Some so-called senior senators here got 500m each from the 2024 budget; I am a ranking senator, but I didn’t get anything. No Senator has a right to accuse Senator Ningi.”
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Adeyemi Adaramodu, briefed journalists after the Plenary and said no senator received N500m as palliative care.
He said the Senator who raised the issue had recanted, claiming he also got the information as a rumour somewhere.
He said, “There is no N500m largesse anywhere. The Senator who raised it had since recanted, claiming that somebody told him somewhere.”
*Embattled Senator resigns as Chairman of Northern Senators Forum after his colleagues abandoned him
Meanwhile, the embattled Senator Ningi resigned as Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum.
He dropped his resignation letter shortly after he was suspended from the Red Chamber for three months.
The letter was addressed to the Secretary of the NSF, Sadiq Sulaiman (APC, Kwara North).
It read in part, “I would like to resign my position as the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum. This is necessitated by unfolding events in the National Assembly, the North, and the Nation at large.”
