Budget Padding: SERAP Drags Nigerian Senate To Court Over ‘Unlawful’ Suspension Of Senator Ningi

Civic group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has vowed to take legal action against the Nigerian Senate over the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi over 2024 budget padding allegations.

Senator Ningi for three months over allegations of budget padding.

Senator Ningi, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Population, had alleged that the leadership of the Senate padded the 2024 budget by N3.7 trillion.

The Bauchi senator, who was the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, maintained that N3.7 trillion could not be accounted for in the 2024 budget.

Senator Ningi was suspended at the plenary on Tuesday amid commotion as a senator raised an order that Senator Olamilekan Adeola presented the budget padding issue and needed no back and forth on it.

While the parties called for a probe into the allegation, some northern senators disowned the claims made by Ningi, saying the Bauchi State senator did not speak for them.

Adeola (APC, Ogun West) raised a motion that there was an urgent need to address the “false allegation” made by Ningi.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations read the transcript of Ningi’s BBC Hausa interview on the floor of the House after Senate President, Godswill Akpabio called for a committee of the whole house.

Reacting to the lawmaker’s suspension, SERAP described Senator Ningi as a whistleblower, as that his suspension is illegal and that the organisation will sue the Senate.

SERAP in a post on X platform said, “We’re suing the Senate over the unlawful suspension of whistleblower and Senator Abdul Ningi for 3 months over his allegation that the Senate inserted projects worth N3 trillion in the 2024 budget, contrary to the Nigerian Constitution and international standards.”

(SaharaReporters)