Senate suspends budget defence over minister’s summons refusal

The Senate, on Tuesday, refused to consider the 2023 budget for the Ministry of Defence after the Minister, Bashiru Magashi, failed to honour invitations extended to him by the Senate Adhoc Committee on the Resuscitation of Nigerian Navy Ships.

The Senate, through its Committee on Defence, reached the decision after an interjection by former Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, who drew the attention of other members of the committee to an earlier action of the Senate summoning the Minister of Defence to come before its ad hoc committee to give explanations concerning the naval ships.

According to Abdullahi, a motion was raised on the floor of the Senate chamber in February on the need to resuscitate the NNA  Aradu, which is Nigeria’s flagship and most powerful in the fleet of Nigerian navy.

He reminded the lawmakers that the Senate subsequently set up an ad hoc committee chaired by him to interface with the Minister of Defence with a view to finding ways to resuscitate the grounded NNS Aradu.

Senator Abdullahi said, “The Minister has refused to honor all three invitations forwarded to him by his ad hoc committee in the last three months.

“The powerful naval ship is owned by only three countries in the world: Germany, Argentina and Nigeria.”

Abdullahi said the ship was designed to protect Nigeria’s territorial integrity, pointing out that   while other countries had maintained their flagship representing the strength of the navy, Nigeria’s had remained grounded.”

Credit: The Punch