For the second time as one of the Principal Officers in the Senate, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC Borno South), was on Wednesday removed as Chief Whip, similar to the fate he suffered in January 2017, when he was suspended in the 8th Senate.
As a ranking senator in 2017, the Borno born lawmaker was sanctioned for six months 180 days) for “bringing Senator Dino Melaye, the Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki and the institution of the Senate to an unbearable disrepute.”
Ndume had, on March 21, 2017, reportedly asked the Senate to investigate the allegations that an armoured Range Rover, believed to be owned by Saraki, whose cost was put at N298m (but at the cost of $298,000 by the chamber), was seized by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
He also called on the red chamber of the National Assembly to probe the certificate scandal allegedly involving Senator Dino Melaye.
And at the end of its investigation by its Committee on Ethics and Privileges, the 8th Senate adopted the report, concluding that the lawmaker “didn’t carry out due diligence” before making the allegations.
…The latest sanction
Unlike in 2017 when his allegations were investigated and made public, Ndume’s removal as Whip of the 10th Senate Wednesday during plenary, only followed the request by the National Working Committee ( NWC) of his party – the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Though not suspended, but removed from certain positions he held as ranking senator.
…What Ndume said
The lawmaker, it would be recalled, had last week, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was being shielded from happenings around the country and that also fenced off and caged.
Featuring on ARISE TV, Ndume had, in response to a litany of questions by the programme anchor, said: “Mr President is not in the picture of what is happening outside the Villa. He has been fenced off and caged. Many of us won’t go through the backdoor to engage him.
“Now, they have stopped him from talking, and he doesn’t have public affairs managers, except for his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who writes press statements. Nigerians are getting very angry.”
“The government is not doing anything about food scarcity, and it needs to act urgently. We don’t have food reserves. A food crisis is the worst crisis any nation can encounter. If we add that to the security crisis, it will be severe.
“The President should wake up. It seems he isn’t in the picture of what is happening because he has been caged off by plutocrats. He should open his doors and meet those who will tell him the truth.
“Unfortunately, the people who will tell him the truth won’t struggle to meet him. I am very worried, not only for the President himself but for myself,” added the lawmaker.
…The APC letter that nailed him
In a letter co-signed by the APC National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru, the party’s NWC sought for his removal as Chief Whip of the Senate on account of being seriously abused by Ndume through unguarded utterances and outbursts against the federal government and President Tinubu in particular.
The NWC, in the letter read during plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said Ndume is more of a mole in the party and advised him to honourably resign his membership.
The letter reads: “We write on behalf of the National Working Committee of our great party to express our displeasure, our outrage and our deep disappointment at the unbecoming, unfounded and baseless criticism of the government and the party, the APC by your majority whip of the Senate, Sen. Ali Ndume as a member of the ruling party.
“We expected a much more responsible and decorous behaviour from him. But this has not been the case. His uncouth and rabid outbursts against the governments, before the international and before the global community is not only harmful to the government’s image alone but also undermines the party’s unity and cohesion and in addition, undermines the government’s effort to bring in foreign direct investments to Nigeria.
“As he is a ranking member of our party, his actions are unbecoming of a senior member of the Senate and sets a very poor example for others in future to follow.
“His latest tirade on air, during a programme on ARISE Television where he referred to the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, commander-in-chief as being run by thieves, portrays Ali Ndume as a person who is bent on running the country down and running the party aground through incitements and chief propaganda.
“We have reviewed that Sen. Ali Ndume should honourably resign the membership of APC and join any opposition party of his choice formally instead of hiding behind the veil of crass activism to decimate the hard earned cohesion and goodwill that our party, the APC, is enjoying within and outside the country.
“His utterances which are sheer propaganda are not based on verifiable facts are unbecoming of member of the APC caucus of the Senate of the National Assembly. And it therefore behoves on the APC caucus to bring this to the attention of its members for necessary actions to curtail his deliberate mission to undermine the government and the party and the progress of Nigerians particularly those appointed by Mr President to work against his administration.
“We therefore urge the Senate caucus to take appropriate steps to address this issue and ensure that members of the Senate, particularly those within the All Progressives Congress, hold and maintain decorum in their public utterances.
“Accordingly, we realise that the position of the whip of the senate belongs to our party and we are not opposed to whatever position the members of the APC caucus in the Senate may have, but we are of the opinion that distinguished Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno should immediately replace distinguished Sen. Ali Ndume who is bent on bringing down the country as the majority whip of the Senate.”
…Resolution
Consequent upon this, the President of the Senate, after reading the letter, put the NWC request to voice votes among the APC senators, and they all concurred.
Aside from removing Ndume as Whip of the Senate, his deputy chairmanship position of Senate Committee on Appropriations, was also removed, thus leaving him as chairman of committee on tourism.
Therefore, Senator Monguno, who replaced Ndume as Whip, also replaced him as deputy chairman of the appropriation committee.
The Senate, however, gave Ndume soft landing when Senator Cyril Fasuyi (APC Ekiti North) moved motion for Ndume to face the Senate Committee on Code of Conducts, Ethics and Privileges on allegations of kleptomania he raised on air.
In an apparent move to save Ndume from suspension, the Senate President, in his remarks on Fasuyi’s motion, said since the APC NWC had requested for his removal as Whip and approved as such, he should be forgiven for now.