The Senate on Tuesday suspended the senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi, for three months for alleging that the 2024 budget was padded with N3 trillion.





The upper chamber also resolved that if Mr Ningi could send an apology letter, the leadership of the senate would, thereafter, decide whether to lift the suspension or not.



The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the suspension of Mr Ningi after it was supported by a majority of senators during deliberation at the Committee of the Whole.Senator Ningi is hereby suspended for three months from all activities relating to the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Mr Akpabio said.The resolution of the upper chamber was a sequel to a point of order raised by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Adeola Olamilekan, during the plenary.



Mr Ningi, the Chairperson of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), recently told BBC Hausa that the lawmakers sought the service of a private auditor and discovered irregularities in the budget.



“Example, we had a budget of N28 trillion but after our thorough checks, we found out that it was a budget of N25 trillion. How and where did we get the additional N3 trillion from, what are we spending it for?” Mr Ningi told the BBC Hausa.



PREMIUM TIMES also exclusively reported that the Northern senators under the aegis of the NSF confronted the Senate President, Mr Akpabio, and accused him of inserting projects worth N4 trillion in the 2024 budget.



Breached privilege

Raising the point of order, Mr Olamilekan (APC, Ogun West) said his privilege as a senator and chair of the joint Appropriation Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives, which scrutinised the budget, had been breached as a result of the budget padding allegation levelled against the 10th Assembly.



He, therefore, urged his colleagues to intervene in the budget padding scandal to allow the public to understand the truth about the process of budget approval.



“I have come up with this order this morning because my privilege has been breached and because I am one of those who participated in the preparation of the budget.



“As chairman of the Appropriation (committee) and for what has transpired in the last few days, my privilege has been breached.



“My privilege has been breached and I focused on the part that affects me and not the whole interview. It is on that premise that I come up in the Senate to protect me,” he said.




https://www.madfind.com.ng/2024/03/alleged-budget-padding-senate-suspends.html

This is not a new thing na. How can you have someone like Akpabio as Senate president and you expect the budget not to be padded.
The man is an expert in criminality.
All these noise they are making is just to save their faces. They know Senator Abdul Ningi is saying the truth.

This is Nigeria where criminals are celebrated.
If you believe that Akpabio can checkmate Tinubu then you should believe that a criminal can checkmate a criminal.

The truth pains them.
Criminals!!!