Ahead of Tuesday’s resumption of the National Assembly, the Senate may review its three-month suspension of Senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Abdul Ningi.
Senator representing Ekiti Central and Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu gave the hint on Monday while speaking with journalists in Abuja.
The Senate last month axed the embattled lawmaker for alleging that the 2024 budget was padded with N3 trillion.
The Red Chamber had hinted that its action was subject to review, provided Senator Ningi could send an apology letter.
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, announced the suspension of Mr Ningi after it was supported by a majority of senators during deliberation at the Committee of the Whole.
Checks revealed that during its recess, Senator Ningi, through his lawyer, Femi Falana( SAN) faulted his suspension by the Senate.
Ningi in the letter dated March 27, 2024, addressed to the Senate leadership, maintained that his suspension was illegal because the Nigerian parliament does not possess the power to “suspend or expel a legislator and confiscate his salaries and allowances.”
The senator said he would not hesitate to report Mr Akpabio to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee if the Senate leadership refused to lift his suspension within seven days.
Senator Akpabio in his response through his counsel, Mr Umeh Kalu (SAN), declared that the Tenth Senate, not Akpabio as an individual axed Senator Ningi.
“Contrary to the contents of your letter under reference, our client was at no time your client’s accuser, prosecutor and judge.
“Our client’s role at the session of the Senate that led to your client’s suspension was and remains the statutory role of a Legislative House Presiding Officer, which role equally includes pronouncing the majority decision of the Legislative House at the end of debate and voting, ” Kalu (SAN) stated.
Senator Adaramodu on Monday said the entire Senate which unanimously suspended Senator Ningi could review its position.
He said:” The question on Ningi, yes, there was an infraction occasioned by the actions of our respected colleague, Senator Abdul Ningi which made the Senate in an open public session, where he was allowed to defend himself and for senators to talk on it, debated on it, then at the end of the day it was found that an infraction had really occurred. And 109 senators except Senator Ningi now decided that Senator Ningi would be given a light disciplinary declaration which gave him a three-month suspension from parliamentary activities.
“So, it is only that 108 senators that took that action that can call Senator Ningi back.
“Yes, like I said, we have been on plenary break for about four weeks. So when we resume tomorrow, (Tuesday) as the case may be, he’s our colleague, if he makes a plea, then the senators will now look at it and then we take it on the merit of it.
“When we were not in the chamber, there have been so many insinuations, they have been a report that a letter has been written by the counsel to Senator Ningi compelling the Senate President to recall Senator Ningi within seven days.
“And then when I was asked a question I said, it’s not a matter of Senator Ningi versus Senator Akpabio. It is Senator Ningi versus the rest of the senators. So, it is not Senator Akpabio, though our president, that took the action unilaterally and solely to suspend Senator Ningi.
“So, it could not behoove on him ( Akpabio) to be the one who will now answer questions on the actions of all the senators. All the senators will ask questions on their own behalf by the time we resume the plenary.
“We will resume plenary tomorrow, so if the matter comes up, either directly or indirectly, either voluntarily or involuntarily, then we sit down together in the chamber and then we look at it on its own merit and consider an action to be taken. That’s what is happening about Senator Ningi’s matter for now.”
Asked for his comments on the legality of the Red Chamber’s action to suspend a member, the Senate spokesman maintained that the Senate has not erred in the eyes of the law.
“For every organisation, either elected organisation, appointed organisation, or statutory organisation, the Civil Service is statutory organisation, judiciary is statutory organisation, then they have bodies that can discipline members.
“The NJC will sit down if there are complaints about any of the members in the judiciary. They sit down and then they give pronouncements. They are not hampered. The Civil Service, that is the Civil Service Commission, Civil Servants are employed statutorily and nobody can tamper with their tenure too.
“But there is Civil Service Commission and they have their own disciplinary arm that when one errs definitely, disciplinary actions can be taken. Now, can we find an organization where there won’t be any discipline? Then are we saying that the arm of government that we call the legislature is so deregulated in authority, in action, in operation, in instrumentality of organizational discipline, that when a member now does anything that can imperil either the corporate integrity or individual integrity of that organization they cannot be disciplined? No.“