Bolaji Jimoh 
Following the back and forth on the alleged 2024 budget padding, the Senate on Tuesday placed a three-month suspension on the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), Senator Abdul Ningi representing Bauchi Central, asking him to abstain from all 10th Senate proceedings.
This was as the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio said that Senator Ningi would be called back to continue his legislative work if he wrote to apologise within that time during the plenary.
New Telegraph reports that the Senate passed a resolution in response to a motion made by Senator Olamilekan Adeola of the APC, Ogun West, as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
The motion addressed Ningi’s accusations that the N28.7 trillion 2024 Appropriations Act contained N3 trillion in budget padding and that the N28.7 trillion budget was actually implemented by the President and not the N25 trillion budget that the National Assembly had passed.
In a previous petition, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim of the APC from Ondo South had requested and Senator Edeh Dafinone of the APC from Delta Central had seconded the Senate’s request to suspend Ningi for a first term of twelve months.
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Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong of the APC, Cross River South, made a second motion to shorten the suspension from a year to six months. Senator Barinada Mpigi of the PDP, South East, seconded the motion.
Senator Musa Garba Maidoki of the PDP (Kebbi South) raised the extra plea for a three-month suspension, and Senator Sani Musa of the APC (Niger East) backed it.
Senator Ningi packed up the bulky documents he brought with him and exited the sacred chamber shortly after Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President, called for a vote on the additional prayer at 3:19 p.m.
Recall that on March 30, 2017, the Senate suspended Senator Ali Ndume, the former majority leader, for six months for failing to “conduct due diligence” prior to filing a petition against Senate President Bukola Saraki and Senator Dino Melaye, the lawmaker representing Kogi West at the time.
