₦‎3.7T Budget Padding Claim: Senate Suspends Ningi For Three Months

The Senate has suspended Senator Abdul Ningi for three months over an allegation of N3.7 trillion padded into the 2024 budget.

Ningi is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Population and represents PDP, Bauchi Central.

While the parties called for a probe into the allegation, some northern senators disowned the claims made by Ningi, saying the Bauchi State senator did not speak for them.

The Bauchi senator, however, maintained his position on Monday that N3.7tn could not be accounted for in the 2024 budget.

In the plenary on Tuesday, Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Ogun West) raised a motion that there is urgent need to address the false allegation by Ningi.

Adeola, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, read the transcript of Ningi’s Hausa BBC interview on the floor of the house after Senate President Godswill Akpabio called for a committee of the whole house.

Meanwhile, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim moves for the suspension of Ningi for 12 months while adding that Senator Sumaila Kawu (Kano South, NNPP) be warned.

Senator Chris Ekpeyong (Akwa-Ibom North-West, PDP) opposed by moving a motion of amendment that it be adjusted to six months and it was seconded. Another Senator said a three-month suspension should be adopted.