President Bola Tinubu convened a closed-door meeting on Tuesday with Senate President Senator Godswill Akpabio and his deputy, Senator Barau Jibrin, shortly after the Senate suspended Senator Abdul Ningi over allegations of budget padding in the 2024 national budget.
Ningi’s suspension sparked debate as it contradicted legal precedent, notably a 2020 appellate court ruling regarding the suspension of members of the Ondo State House of Assembly.
The meeting, held at the State House in Abuja, occurred amidst fresh accusations of malfeasance within the Senate. Agom Jarigbe, the senator for Cross River North, alleged that certain senior senators had received a N500 million intervention from the executive, while others, including himself, received nothing.
However, Senator Adeyemi Adaramodu, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, refuted Jarigbe’s claim, stating that no senator received such a sum as a palliative.
During the session, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele accused Ningi of playing into a larger scheme aimed at impeaching the Senate president before June. Ningi subsequently resigned as Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum.
The specifics of Tinubu’s meeting with the Senate leaders, which took place around 5:15 pm at the State House, remain undisclosed. However, it is presumed to be linked to Ningi’s suspension over his assertion that Tinubu was implementing a different budget from the one presented to the National Assembly.
Sources close to the meeting indicated that Akpabio briefed the president on the events of the tumultuous Senate session, leading to Ningi’s suspension.
Despite Ningi’s denial of the allegations attributed to him, the majority of his colleagues, including those from the northern region, deemed his statements detrimental to the Senate’s reputation.
Following a motion by Senator Solomon Adeola, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Ningi was suspended for three months pending a written apology to the Senate. Adeola cited breaches of privilege by Ningi, accusing him of claiming that the Senate padded the 2024 national budget by over N3 trillion and of skewing projects in favor of southern Nigeria.
The decision to suspend Ningi stemmed from concerns raised about the integrity of the budgetary process and the need to address allegations against the Senate and the Presidency.