Janet Samuel, Abuja
The Senator representing Borno North, Sen. Mohammed Monguno has replaced Sen. Ali Ndume representing Borno South as the Majority Whip of the Senate, that has been removed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) over comments made against President Bola Tinubu
This was contained in a letter to the President of the Senate Godswill Akpabio and signed by the National Chairman of the party, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje and the National Secretary, Ajibola Bashiru
The letter titled “Complaints Against the Unbecoming Utterances of Sen. Ali Ndume” was read by Akpabio during plenary on Wednesday.
The letter reads in part: “I’m writing on behalf of the National Working Committee (NWC) of our great party.
“This is to express our displeasure, our outrage and our deep disappointment at the unbecoming, unfounded and baseless criticism of the government and the party, the APC by your Majority Whip of the Senate, Sen. Ali Ndume as a member of the ruling party.
“We expected a much more responsible and decorous behaviour from him. But this has not been the case.
“His uncouth and rabid outbursts against the governments, before the international community and before the global community is not only harmful to the government’s image alone.
“It also undermines the party’s unity and cohesion and in addition, undermines the government’s effort to bring in foreign direct investments to Nigeria.
“As he is a ranking member of our party, his actions are unbecoming of a senior member of the Senate and sets a very poor example for others in future to follow.
“Portrays Ali Ndume as a person who is bent on running the country down and running the party aground through insightments and chief propaganda.”
The part’s leadership said that it had reviewed that Ndume should honourably resign the membership of APC and join any opposition party of his choice formally.
“His utterances which are sheer propaganda are not based on verifiable facts, are unbecoming of member of the APC caucus of the Senate of the National Assembly.
“And it therefore behoves on the APC caucus to bring this to the attention of its members.
“This is for necessary actions to curtail his deliberate mission to undermine the government and the party and the progress of Nigerians particularly those appointed by Mr President to work against his administration.
“We therefore urge the senate caucus to take appropriate steps to address this issue and ensure that members of the senate, particularly those within the APC hold and maintain decorum in their public utterances.
“Accordingly, we realise that the position of the whip of the senate belongs to our party and we are not opposed to whatever petition the members of the APC caucus in the senate may have.
“But we are of the opinion that distinguished Sen. Mohammed Monguno should immediately replace distinguished Sen. Ali Ndume who is bent on bringing down the country as the majority whip of the senate.
In a related development, the Senate announced Sen. Musa Mustapha of Yobe state as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Livestock Development.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio made the announcement of Mustapha along other heads of committees during plenary.
It would be recalled that President Bola Tinubu recently announced the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Development.
According to Akpabio, with the elevation of Sen. Mohammed Monguno to the position of the Majority Whip of the Senate, his Committee on Judiciary Human Rights and Legal Matters will now be chaired by Sen. Adegbonmire Adeniyi of Ondo state.
Other appointments include that of Sen. Ali Ndume as Chairman Senate Committee on Tourism while Sen. Anthony Ani of Ebonyi state becomes deputy chairman of the committee, and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the proposed Reparation and Repertration becomes Sen. Ned Nwoko of Delta State.
According to him, Sen. Simon Lalong of Plateau state will chair the Senate Committee on Agricultural Institutions, while Sen. Abdul Ningi of Bauchi that was recently called from suspension retained his position as Chairman Senate Committee on National Identity and Population.
