The Senate has said that its president, Godswill Akpabio, has no power to recall suspended Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central), adding that only the 108 lawmakers can do so.
Ningi was slammed with a three-month suspension after he alleged budget padding amounting to N3.7 trillion, an allegation the Senate denied.
The Senate, presided over by Akpabio, slammed a three-month suspension on Ningi on 13 March 2024 before proceeding on recess.
The Senate resumes plenary today and there have been concerns over Ningi’s fate.
Ningi’s lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, had earlier written to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, asking him to reinstate the lawmaker.
But the lawyer to Akpabio also responded that it was a senate decision and not Akpabio’s decision, as he was only a presiding officer.
But speaking to journalists yesterday before the resumption of the senate, the senate spokesman, Yemi Adaramodu, said Ningi offended the senate, adding that it was a disciplinary action taken against him by the entire lawmakers.
“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 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 108 senators that took that action that can call Senator Ningi back,” Adaramodu said.
Adaramodu further said, “Yes, like I said, we have been on plenary break for about four weeks. So, when we resume, 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, there has been a report that a letter has been written by the counsel to Senator Ningi compelling the senate president to recall 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’s 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,” Adaramodu added.
He also said, “So it could not behoove him to be the one who will now answer questions on the actions of all the senators, that all the senators will ask questions on their 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 merit and consider an action to be taken. That’s what is happening about Senator Ningi’s matter for now.”
On the issue of Ovie Omo-Agege who was suspended on allegations of mace theft and the court rules that a lawmaker can’t be suspended for more than two months, Adaramodu said, “I’m not in a court of law.”
“The issue of Senator Omo-Agege and this one is distinctly very different. Secondly, for every organisation, either elected organisation, appointed organisation, or statutory organisation, the Civil Service is a statutory organisation, the judiciary is a 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 a Civil Service Commission and they have their disciplinary arm that when one errs definitely, disciplinary actions can be taken. Now, can we find an organisation 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 the instrumentality of organizational discipline, that when a member now does anything that can imperil either the corporate integrity or individual integrity of that organisation they cannot be disciplined? No,” Adaramodu said, adding that Ningi’s constituencies won’t be shortchanged.
“If it is either 14 days by law or two days by law discipline is discipline. That’s one aspect. The second aspect is this; as a legislator, you are elected to perform various roles. We have said it here, the only role that disciplinary action can curtail you from performing is sitting down with your colleagues in the chamber.
“Now, what we are saying is this. Anything that will make him sit down with other legislators, if he’s going to be made to sit down with other legislators in oversight, then it’s barred. If it’s going to be made to sit down with the colleagues in the chamber, that disciplined member will be barred.
“But if you advocate for your consistency by going there, have meetings with them, talk to them, attend meetings with them, you are not barred. But what we are saying is that can you run an organization without discipline? If there is going to be discipline, then what is going to be the quality of the discipline vis-a-vis the enormity of the offence that you have committed,” Adaramodu asked.
