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The suspended lawmaker, Senator Abdul Ningi said his allegation that the 2024 budget was padded with N3tn opened a can of worms in the Senate.
The senator said his colleagues were bent on silencing him instead of asking for the evidence of his claim.
During its plenary on Tuesday, March 12, 2023, the Senate slammed a three-month suspension on Ningi following his controversial interview with BBC Hausa.
In the interview, Ningi claimed the 2024 budget being implemented by the presidency is different from the one the Senate approved.
When the matter was raised for discussion during Tuesday’s plenary, Ningi said he was misquoted in some quarters but insisted that the budget was padded.
His insistence generated uproar in the Senate as some of his colleagues asked him to apologise, while others moved motions that the 63-year-old lawmaker representing Bauchi Central be suspended.
At the end of the discussion, the Senate suspended Ningi for three months. But the move did not make him recant his claim.
Ningi doubles down on his claim
Speaking on Arise TV after his suspension, Ningi said the Senate was determined to silence him.
The embattled lawmaker said none of his colleagues asked questions about the evidence for his allegation on the budget since the crisis started.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Immediately after his suspension, Ningi resigned as the Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum.