Ndume again suffers removal in Senate as Principal officer

IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, Abuja

 

Former Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator  Mohammed Ali Ndume (Borno South)  for the second time as one of the Principal Officers in the Senate, was removed as Chief Whip , similar to a fate he suffered in January 2017 , when he was removed as Leader of the 8th Senate

 

Senator Ndume’s removal as Whip of the 10th Senate during plenary on Wednesday , was sequel to request made to that effect by the National Working Committee ( NWC) of the All Progressives Congress ( APC .

 

The APC NWC in a letter co –  signed by the National Chairman of the party , Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru , sought for Ndume’s removal as Chief Whip of the Senate being a position meant for a member of the party but seriously abused by Senator Ndume through unguarded utterances and outbursts against the federal government and Senator Bola Tinubu in particular.

 

The NWC in the letter read in plenary by President of the Senate, 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  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 and are unbecoming of any 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”.

 

Consequently , the President of the Senate after reading the letter , put the NWC request , to voice votes among the APC Senators which they all accepted .

 

Aside removing Ndume as Whip of the Senate , his Deputy Chairmanship position of Senate Committee on Appropriations , was also removed by reducing him to  Chairman of Committee on Tourism .

 

Senator Monguno who replaced Ndume as Whip, also replaced Ndume as Deputy Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

 

The Senate however gave Ndume soft landing when Senator Cyril Fasuyi ( APC Ekiti North ) , moved motion for Ndume to face Senate Committee on Code of Conducts , Ethics and Privileges on allegation of kleptomania against them .

 

In an apparent move to save Ndume from suspension , the President of the Senate in his remarks on Fasuyi’s motion , said since the APC NWC had requested for his removal as Whip and approved , he should be forgiven for now .

Efforts by Champion to reach out to the embattled Senate and spokesman of the Senate, Senator Yemi Adaramodu failed as Ndume’ was said to have traveled to Maiduguri while Adaramodu left office to attend to committee meeting for hours.

 

 

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