Senator Ali Ndume, the Chief Whip of the Senate, disclosed that he had cautioned Senator Abdul Ningi regarding his allegation that the 2024 budget was padded by over N3 trillion, but his advice went unheeded.
Ndume shared this revelation during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Wednesday.
It’s worth noting that Senator Abdul Ningi, who represents Bauchi Central in the Senate, was suspended for three months by the Senate on Tuesday in relation to his budget padding claim.
He said, “I sat next to the Senate Leader (Opeyemi Bamidele), he was very angry about what Ningi did, but honestly me too. What he (Ningi) did was wrong because I was involved.
“In the first instance, it started when they said the capital project was skewed to the south. The total in that budget that was brought before us by the President was not up to N9 trillion, it was N8.9 trillion, and they are talking of skewed capital project to the South and the total adding up to N15 trillion.
“That N15 trillion is strange, even with the amendment that we made, the capital component of this budget is not up to that.
“I told him he was wrong. I had even warned him when he brought the issue to me. I told him to get a consultant to analyze the budget. But he refused to listen to me.”
Ndume, Ningi was trying to make the 2024 project an ethnic and political issue, which is wrong.
Ndume said when Ningi first presented the case to him, he told him to provide evidence, which he could not.
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The Senate Chief Whip said that, as a senior member of the Senate, he, Ndume, can attest to the fact that the North was not shortchanged by the South in the budget, as claimed by Ningi.
Recall that Ningi, in an interview, reportedly claimed that the Federal Government was operating two versions of the 2024 budget and that the N28.7 trillion budget passed and signed into law by President Bola Tinubu was skewed against the North.
But the lawmakers and the presidency berated him, describing his claims as far-fetched and unbecoming of a leader of his status.
Ningi, however, later denied saying the country was operating two budgets but insisted that only N25 trillion of the budget was tied to projects while N3.7 trillion had no project tied to it.
Before his consequent suspension on Tuesday, Ningi had said on Monday he was ready to be suspended.
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