Budget Padding: You Can’t Control the Can of Worms I Have Opened, Ningi Tells Akpabio.
Senator Abdul Ningi says the can of worms he opened in the Senate cannot be controlled.
The Senate slammed a 3-month suspension on Ningi, lawmaker representing Bauchi Central, over the allegations that N3.7 trillion was not traceable to any project in the 2024 budget.
The lawmaker made the claim in an interview he granted to BBC Hausa over the weekend.
Based on the wide interest generated by the issue, Ningi had addressed the media ahead of the next plenary sitting, saying although he was misrepresented in some quarters, he stood by what he said and was ready for any consequence.
Expectedly, when the upper legislative chamber sat on Tuesday, the issue was discussed as some of Ningi’s colleagues called for his suspension.
After Senator Olamilekan Adeola from Ogun West moved a motion for the issue to be discussed, the senate descended into chaos as Jarigbe Jarigbe, senator representing Cross River north, claimed that some “senior senators” got N500 million in the budget for constituency projects.
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“Let us wash our dirty linen in public. If we want to go into those issues, all of us are culpable. Some senators here… so called ‘senior senators’… got N500 million each. I am a ranking senator, so I didn’t get. Did I go to the press?”
The discussion has dominated the media as many Nigerians have been asking their representatives at the senate to comment on the amount they got.
Speaking on the development when he featured as a guest on Arise TV after the suspension, Ningi claimed that members of the Senate were determined to get him silenced or arrested.
He said: “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.”
