Senate suspends Abdul Ningi over budget padding claims

The Senate, on Tuesday, suspended Senator Abdul Ningi for three months over budget padding allegations.

His suspension followed a motion moved at plenary on Tuesday, by Jimoh Ibrahim.

Jimoh Ibrahim had moved the motion for Ningi’s suspension for 12 months over allegations of criminal misinformation and breach of peace in the National Assembly and the country by extension.

But the Senator representing Cross River South Senatorial District, Asuquo Ekpenyong and Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, moved for an amendment to reduce the suspension to six and three months respectively.

Akpabio, who described Ningi’s offences as “grievous”, conducted a voice vote during which most of the lawmakers voted in support of Ningi’s suspension for three months.

Ningi, the Senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, had alleged N3 trillion padding of the 2024 Budget.

In an interview with BBC Hausa during the weekend, Ningi, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was alleged to have said the 2024 budget was padded and that President Bola Tinubu is currently implementing two different budgets.

“For the first time in Nigerian history, today we are operating two different budgets. One budget was approved by the National Assembly and signed by President Bola Tinubu and the other one was implemented by the presidency.

“The one approved by us is N25tn while the one operated by the Federal Government is N28tn.

“Apparently, we discovered N3 trillion was inserted into the budgets for projects without locations. This is the highest budget padding that happened in Nigerian history under Senator Akpabio’s watch,” he reportedly said.

Ningi, however, denied the reports on Monday, saying he was quoted out of context because he spoke in Hausa language.