“Ningi’s suspension shows Senate is involved in mass looting of Nigeria’s treasury” – Arewa group

A Northern group, Arewa Movement for Good Governance (AM2G), has accused the Nigerian Senate of partaking in the mass looting of the public treasury.

 

The group made the allegation in reaction to the Senate leadership’s suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi.

Ningi, who represents Bauchi Central, was suspended for three months over allegations of N3.7 trillion padding of the 2024 budget.

The group’s convener and former member of the House of Representatives, Dr Usman Bugaje, said at a press conference yesterday that it was unfair for an issue of such magnitude to be swept under the carpet without a thorough investigation to prove beyond doubt to the Nigerian public, who ostensibly elected the senators to represent them, that the lawmakers were not culpable.

To this end, Bugaje noted that the nation’s democracy cannot deliver development with the kind of National Assembly in place.

His words: “The National Assembly is an accomplice in the mass looting of the public treasury that has today become the budget process.

Meanwhile, Nigerians are impoverished and marginalised; they struggle to survive with no hope for improvement.

“Now, we can see why we spent billions of dollars in electricity without a substantial increase in megawatts of electricity, and the culprits are going scot-free; why our economy has been shrinking and ending up in shambles; why our youths cannot find jobs; why our country is on this dangerous trajectory, heading for the rocks; and why this country, under this rogue politics, has no future at all.”

He urged Nigerians to raise their voices and demand accountability from their leaders, pointing out that the decision to suspend Ningi was a total violation of his fundamental rights.

“Suspension of Senator Ningi appears to be a panic measure that violates the principles of representation in a democracy. It is clearly an evasive move to distract attention from the issues raised.

“It is also unfair for an issue of this magnitude to be swept under the carpet without a thorough investigation to prove beyond doubts to the Nigerian public, who ostensibly elected these senators to represent them that the senators are not culpable.

“From the video clips shown by the media covering the NASS, we found it intriguing that after the suspension, and as Ningi was walking out of the chamber with the heap of evidence in his hands, no senator appeared to show any compunction.

“This suggests a conspiracy of silence in the supposedly hallowed chamber, or is it a chamber of shame? It apparently did not occur to the Senate that they were judges in their own court, or worse still, they were the prosecutors and the jury at the same time.”