Nigeria’s senator who criticised President Tinubu removed by colleagues
The Nigerian Senate, on Wednesday, announced the removal of Senator Mohamed Ali Ndume (Borno South) as Chief Whip.
When put to voice vote by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, members of the APC Senate Caucus endorsed Ndume’s removal as Senate Chief Whip during plenary.
Ndume was replaced by Tahir Mungono (Borno North).
This comes amid his recent criticisms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.
In a letter addressed to the Senate Caucus by the national leadership of the ruling party, the APC asked Ndume to resign his membership of the APC and join any opposition party of his choice.
The letter was signed by the party’s national chairman and secretary, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Ajibola Bashiru.
Earlier in the year, the Nigerian Senate suspended Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) for criticising the president.
READ ALSO: Senator Ndume says President Tinubu fenced off by cabal
Ningi, also a ranking senator from the North, was suspended for three months in March this year, for granting an interview to the BBC Hausa in which he alleged that N3.7 trillion in the national budget for the 2024 fiscal year was not tied to any project or location.
Ndume had in an interview with newsmen at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja last week said, “Mr. President is not in the picture of what is happening outside the Villa. He has been fenced off and caged. So 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 his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who writes press statements. Nigerians are getting very angry.
“The government is not doing anything about the food scarcity and it needs to do something urgently. We don’t have food reserve. There is unavailability of food. Food crisis is the worst crisis that any nation can encounter. If we add that to security crisis, it will be severe.”
