Senate To Considers Ningi’s Recall At Resumed Plenary

The Senate is currently weighing options on whether to recall Senator Abdul Ningi from suspension at Tuesday plenary or allow him to serve out the punishment

The Senate in March suspended Senator Ningi for claiming during a BBC Hausa Service interview that the National Assembly passed two 2024 budgets.

He also alleged that the 2024 budget was padded to the tune of N3.7 trillion.

The Senate had rejected the allegations, thereby suspended Ningi for three months

Ningi had through his counsel, Femi Falana SAN, wrote to the Senate president and gave him a seven-day ultimatum to recall him or face legal action.

Akpabio in his reaction to the ultimatum said the suspension of Ningi was not a unilateral action by him but the collective decision of the Senate.

The suspension of Ningi and efforts being made to recall him would feature prominently upon resumption of the Senate, it was learnt.

However, the chairman Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu (APC- Ekiti South) on monday said any decision to recall or not recall Ningi would be taken by the entire Senate if the issue comes up during plenary.

Adaramodu made this assertion in Abuja while responding to questions from reporters.

He said: “The second question on Ningi, yes, there was an infraction occasioned by the actions of our respected colleague, Senator Abdul Ningi which made the Senate in an open public session where he was given the opportunity to defend himself and for senators to talk on it, debated on it, then at the end of the day it was found that an infraction had really occurred.

“One hundred and nine senators except Senator Ningi now decided that Senator Ningi would be given a light disciplinary declaration which gave him a three-month suspension from parliamentary activities.

“So it is only the 108 senators who took that action that can call Senator Ningi back.”

Yes, like I said, we have been on plenary break for about four weeks. So when we resume tomorrow, as the case may be, he’s our colleague, we made a plea, then the senators will now look at it and then we take it on the merit of it.

“When we were not in the chamber, there have been so many insinuations, there has been a report that a letter had been written by the counsel to Senator Ningi compelling the Senate President to recall Senator Ningi within seven days.

“Then when I was asked a question I said, it’s not a matter of Senator Ningi versus Senator Akpabio. It’s Senator Ningi versus the rest of the senators. So, it is not Senator Akpabio, though our president, who took the action unilaterally and solely to suspend Senator Ningi.

Ningi’s suspension parliamentary decision, Akpabio replies Falana
“So it could not behove him to be the one who will now answer questions on the actions of all the senators, that all the senators will ask questions on their own behalf by the time we resume the plenary.

“We will resume plenary tomorrow, so if the matter comes up, either directly or indirectly, either voluntarily or involuntarily, then we will sit down together in the chamber and look at it on its own merit and consider an action to be taken. That’s what is happening about Senator Ningi’s matter for now.”

Referring to a court judgement that a lawmaker can only be suspended for 14 days, Adaramodu said, I’m not a law court, The issue of Senator Omo-Agege and this one are distinctly very different.

“Secondly, for every organization, either elected organization, appointed organization, or statutory organization, the Civil Service is a statutory organization, the judiciary is a statutory organization and they have bodies that can discipline members.

“The NJC (National Judicial Council) will sit down if there are complaints about any of the members in the judiciary. They sit down and then they give pronouncements. They are not hampered.

In the Civil Service, that is the Civil Service Commission, Civil Servants are employed statutorily and nobody can tamper with their tenure too.

“But there is the Civil Service Commission and they have their own disciplinary arm that when one errs, definitely, disciplinary actions can be taken.

“Now, can we find an organisation where there won’t be any discipline? Are we saying that the arm of government that we call the legislature is so deregulated in authority, in action, in operation, in the instrumentality of organizational discipline, that when a member now does anything that can imperil either the corporate integrity or individual integrity of that organization they cannot be disciplined? No.

He said whether suspension is 14 days or two days, “discipline is discipline. That’s one aspect.”

He added: “The second aspect is this. As a legislator, you are elected to perform various roles.

We have said it here, the only role that disciplinary action can curtail you from performing is sitting down with your colleagues in the chamber.

“Now, what we are saying is this. Anything that will make him sit down with other legislators, if he’s going to be made to sit down with other legislators in oversight, then it’s barred.

“If it’s going to be made to sit down with the colleagues in the chamber, that disciplined member will be barred. But if you advocate for your consistency by going there, have meetings with them, talk to them, attend meetings with them, you are not barred.”

“But what we are saying is that can you run an organization without discipline? If there is going to be discipline, then what is going to be the quality of the discipline vis-a-vis the enormity of the offence that you have committed.”