The Senator representing Kogi-West, and member of the Northern Senators’ Forum (NSF), Sunday Karimi, on Monday, reacted to claims by the senator representing Bauchi-Central Senatorial District, Sen. Abdul Ningi, that he never said that the administration of President Bola Tinubu was operating two budgets for 2024.
Karimi, who doubles as the Chairman, Committee on Senate Services, told his colleague to have the fear of God by telling Nigerians the truth.
Karimi said it did not matter that Ningi bragged that he was not afraid of suspension, but that he should at least tell the truth.
The lawmaker gave the advice while responding to Ningi’s press conference on Monday where he denied saying there were two budgets in operation, but insisted that N3.7 trillion in the budget was not tied to any projects.
Challenging Ningi to own up to his misinformation, Karimi said the Bauchi senator spoke on behalf of the Northern Senators’ Forum and not in his individual capacity.
“I advise Sen. Ningi to at least fear God if he is not afraid of suspension. He spoke for the NSF and not for himself even though nobody authorized him in the NSF to lie against the Senate”, he said.
Karimi maintained that Ningi was “Up to mischief” because when they met with the Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, he requested that they bring the report so that he would set up a committee to find out if there was anything like that.
“We went to the Senate President as members of the NSF, but since he is on a mission of self-destruct, Senator Ningi decided to go to the media instead of bringing the report to the Senate President to set up a committee to authenticate the veracity of the claims”, Karimi stated.
Speaking further, Karimi chided Ningi saying, “As a former principal officer both in the Senate and the House of Representatives, is Senator Ningi saying he is ignorant of the fact that arrangement of items on the first line charges are not usually lumped together with general items in the budget?
“I must say that Ningi is just trying to engage in red-herring and sow the seed of institutional anarchy. As a ranking lawmaker, he should know that organisation of first-line charge items is not lined up on the budget.
“A new legislator could have been forgiven for this invidious tar-brushing but a ranking senator cannot claim ignorance of the organisation of budget items.”
Sen. Karimi also challenged Ningi to disclose the source of the N30 million paid to the consultant who did the shoddy job for him.
According to Karimi, “No Northern Senator contributed any money to pay any consultant, so where did Senator Ningi get the N30m he paid the consultant? Sen. Ningi should tell Nigerians the source of the N30m he paid to the consultants who have not even delivered on his consultancy since he is talking about transparency.”