The Senate, on Wednesday, announced the removal of Senator representing Borno South, Mohamed Ali Ndume as Chief Whip.
On Wednesday, when put to voice vote during plenary by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senate Caucus endorsed Ndume’s removal as Senate Chief Whip.
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 titled “Complaints Against the Unbecoming Utterances of Sen. Ali Ndume” was signed by the Party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and Ajibola Bashir, the Secretary and read by Akpabio during plenary.
Meanwhile, some loyalists of Tinubu had plotted to get Ndume suspended.
Sources at the National Assembly told Daily Trust that the pro-Tinubu Senators were planning to not just strip Ndume of his position but equally suspend him like Senator Abdul Ningi of Bauchi Central.
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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.”
It was gathered from that three of the four senators plotting Ndume’s suspension and ouster as the Chief Whip are from the South West – Ekiti, Ogun and Lagos, while another Senator from Kogi is also part of the agenda.
It was learnt that Akpabio is in a fix, considering that Ndume was the Director-General of the Stability Group which worked hard to make him President of the Senate in June 2023.
It was, however, hinted that some Northern senators were waiting for the cat to be let out of the bag during plenary before they would take a position.
“But of course, you know the Northern Senators will rise against another plan to destabilise their caucus, barely a few months after Ningi was suspended,” a source said.
