reports that embattled Senator Abdul Ningi has alleged that the Senate was making attempts to arrest him over his allegation of padding the 2024 appropriation budget to the tune of N3.7 trillion. Ningi disclosed this in an interview on Arise Television, just as his constituents in Bauchi Central Senatorial District have given the Senate a two-week ultimatum to lift the suspension on Ningi. The Senate, in the week, suspended Ningi for three months over claims that projects worth N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget were untraceable. But Ningi, who said no one could control the can of worms he had opened, added: “That is why I said I know this parliament very well. I have come a long way. And that is why we are speaking. Let’s speak.
Have they ever asked me since the beginning of this so-called crisis, where are your findings? Where are the documents? I’m not using my head to come up with figures. Nobody has talked to me about evidence. Nobody has suggested even listening to me. All they are trying to do is to ensure that ‘how do we make sure that Ningi is silenced or arrested so that he doesn’t do anything?’ I have opened this can of worms. Neither they nor I will be able to control it.” However, Ndume, speaking in an interview on Channels Television the Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, yesterday, said each senator was allocated N200 million for their constituency projects in the 2024 budget, but that presiding officers got more. Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe, representing Cross River North, had claimed that some “senior senators” got N500 million in the 2024 budget for constituency projects. Speaking on the matter, Ndume said Ningi was wrong for the budget padding allegation, adding that the Bauchi senator wanted to make the 2024 budget an ethnic issue. The Borno senator said the issue of constituency projects was not a new phenomenon in Nigerian politics. He added that most of his colleagues know that he got more funds than they did because of his position as the chief whip.
