“Why Does The Impeachment Bell Ring Only When A Southerner Is Senate President”? – Senator  Bamidele

By Akinwale Kasali

Senate Leader, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele on  Tuesday, during Plenary at the Senate, pricked the conscience of his colleagues when he asked a pungent question.

Bamidele, a Lawyer, and Senator, APC,  representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District spoke during a debate on the appropriate punishment to be meted out to Senator Abdul Ningi, PDP, Bauchi  Central, for falsely alleging that the 2024 budget was padded.

Ningi had alleged, without proof, that the National Assembly passed two different budgets, and padded the one being operated by a whopping three trillion Naira.

At Plenary on Tuesday, his colleagues dragged him in the mud and went after him like hungry lions.

When Bamidele was recognized to speak, he warned about treating the serious allegations by Ningi with kid gloves. Before he made his submissions, he said he was not speaking as   the Senate Leader, but as Senator Bamidele representing Ekiti Central District.

Obviously angry, he said that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, was the target of Ningi’s false allegations. He noted that Akpabio has been a target for impeachment plots from day one and said that those engaged in the plots want him out before the end of his tenure.

He then wondered why the impeachment banner against the Senate President was always up each time a Southerner occupied the seat.

He stated that the only time a Southerner (s) occupied it, during the President Olusegun Obasanjo Government, each of them was hounded out of office. He said that was the opposite when the seat was occupied by Northerners. He cited Senator David Mark who had a smooth eight years in office, Dr Bukola Saraki who served out his tenure even though many arrows were thrown his way, as well as the immediate past Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan.

Even though Ningi tried to distance himself from the allegations he made on the BBC Hausa Service, and said he only said that the sum of N3.7tn was yet to be accounted for, he was not spared.

He was slammed with a three-month suspension from the Senate after a heated and stormy session.