Budget Padding : Senate Suspends Abdul Ningi

By Ayodele Oni

For raising alarm over an alleged budget padding, the Senate on Tuesday suspended Senator Abdul Ningi.

Ningi had raised an alarm alleging that the 2024 budget was padded with N3.7trn, insisting that the figure passed was different from the one approved by President Bola Tinubu.

Ningi, from Bauchi Central Senatorial District, was suspended for three months after a long stormy session in the red chamber.

A member of the Appropriation Committee in the Senate, Jimoh Ibrahim, first 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.

However, other lawmakers like Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong moved for the amendment of the motion by Ibrahim.

Ekpenyong, who is from Cross River South Senatorial District, and Senator Abdulfatai Buhari from Oyo North prayed for the reduction of the suspension to six and three months respectively.

Godswill Akpabio, presiding 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.