Bauchi Governor Mohammed Stands By Ningi As Senator’s Suspension Causes More Anger

Anger over the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi by the senate continued to spread on Wednesday, as the governor of his native Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, declared that the state government was behind the senator.

Mohammed, who spoke during the State Executive Council meeting at Government House, Bauchi, also faulted the decision of the senate to suspend Ningi for three months.

Similarly, the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, said Ningi’s suspension had not addressed vital issues in the allegation of senate’s padding of the 2024 budget raised by the lawmaker.

Former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, on Wednesday, said Ningi could challenge his suspension from the senate in court.

Speaking at the council meeting, Mohammed said, “Yesterday, I was very sad the senate suspended one of our best from Bauchi for saying the truth, for standing up to be the beacon of the truth.”

The governor, who is also the chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, said, “Equally, I don’t know what we will do, but we will discuss privately to see what we can do to support him because I support whatever he is doing and that is our best position, especially if what he is saying is the truth.”

Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, Mr. Peter Obi, said the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi by the senate had not addressed the vital issues in the allegation he raised.

 Obi stated this in a statement via his X handle on Wednesday. He said the fuss over the alleged N3 trillion padded into the 2024 budget still raged as the senate’s reaction of suspending the whistle-blower had not addressed vital issues emanating from the allegation.

He said, “The senator is insisting on his allegation, and the executive agreed that there was only N1.2 trillion padded, not N3 trillion, as alleged by the senator. Fresh allegations have also cropped up over the indiscriminate and unbalanced allocation of constituency projects by the senate leadership.

 “A civic society group, Budgit, through their officials, has also added their voice to agree with the senator. They allege that there were no detailed project allocations for about N3.7 trillion in the 2024 Appropriation Act.

 “As the senate suspension of the senator involved has not addressed the issue, they still owe the Nigerian public a clear clarification over the various claims and counterclaims, including that of the executive arm, to be able to know exactly what is happening, and also disclose to the public, the exact amounts allocated for constituency projects for appropriate monitoring of implementation by the public.

 “I had particularly elucidated in my earlier comment on what we can use the N3 trillion to achieve, by showing that it is more than the national budget of the two most critical components of the human development index, health and education, combined.

 “Now that the executive arm has accepted that the padded amount is only N1.2 trillion, it is still a very significant amount, when you consider that it is almost five times the N251.47 billion proposed for Universal Basic Education, which is the foundation of education, in the country.

“Today, in Nigeria, the greatest challenge to human resource development is education, which has been identified as most critical at the basic level.”

 The LP leader said Nigeria had about 20 million out-of-school children today because of the poor investment in education. He said those were resources that could have been utilised to ensure that the Nigerian children were taken off the streets and returned to school.

Obi said the N1.2 trillion, which the executive admitted to have been padded, if channelled into any of the critical areas of development, could have positively impacted the nation and uplifted the people.

According to him, “And if, indeed, the report from Budgit is true, that there is about N3.7 trillion without any detailed project allocations, I strongly urge the senate to do more detailed work of channelling these funds into the critical areas of development — education, health and pulling people out of poverty, which will in turn, minimise the criminality we are facing today.

“We must, as a matter of urgency, put a stop to all the wastage of our scarce resources, amid the excruciating hardship in the country. Let every penny of our public funds be used for public good. That is the only way to achieve the new Nigeria we are working towards.”

 Chuks Okocha, Kasim Sumaina and Segun Awofadeji

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