What I Told Senator Ningi Before His ‘Controversial’ Radio Interview – Ndume

The Chief Whip of the  Nigerian Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has disclosed that  Senator Abdul Ningi had before going public with his  allegations that the 2024 budget was padded and made to feature extra N3 trillion told him about it and he had warned him (Ningi) against  raising such an allegation.

Ningi, who represents Bauchi Central, was on Tuesday suspended for three months by the Senate for raising  the budget padding allegations which the senators have described as  false.

Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Ndume while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today  programme on Wednesday, submitted that Ningi’ s allegations  are untrue.

Recall that  Senator Ningi  had during an interview with the BBC Hausa service,  raised allegations of budget padding against those in charge of the affairs of the senate and the presidency.

The presidency had however described the views expressed by the senator as ‘strange’.

‘Apart from what the National Assembly did on the floors of the senate and the House of representatives, there was another budget that was done underground which we didn’t know.

The new things we have discovered in the budget were not known to us. We haven’t seen them in the budget that was debated and considered on the floor of the National Assembly.

For example, it was said that there was a budget of N28 trillion but what was passed was N25 trillion. So, there is N3 trillion on top. Where are they, where is it going? So, we need to know this. There are a lot of things’ Ningi had submitted during the  controversial interview.

‘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’ Ndume submitted on Wednesday.

‘In the first instance, it started when they said 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 N8.9trillion  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 had told him to get a consultant to analyze the budget. But he refused to listen to me’ the Senate Chief Whip added.

Ndume also condemned Ningi for allegedly trying to make  the 2024 budget an ethnic and a political issue. 

He added that when Ningi first presented the case to him, he told him to provide evidence which he could not.

Ndume insisted that as a high ranking member of the Senate, he can attest to the fact that the North was not shortchanged by the South in the budget as claimed by Ningi-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you