UPDATED: Senate sacks Ndume as chief whip for criticising Tinubu, reshuffles committees

The Senate on Wednesday sacked its Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, for criticising President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The upper chamber replaced Mr Ndume, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Borno South Senatorial District with Tahir Monguno (Borno North).

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the decision after many of the senators supported it during the plenary.

The decision followed a letter from Abdullahi Ganduje, the national chairman of the APC, and Bashir Ajibola, the party secretary, which the senate president read during the plenary.

In the letter, the APC national leaders recommended that the Senate relieve Mr Ndume of his position because of his “unguarded utterances” that are “against the federal government.”

The APC leaders described Mr Ndume as “someone who is bent on dividing the country” and as someone who is not putting the country in a better position in the international community.

The party subsequently recommended that Mr Ndume’s position in the Senate should be taken over by Mr Monguno.

After reading the letter, the senate president put it to vote and the senators voted overwhelmingly in support of it.

Mr Akpabio approved the recommendation and directed the Sergeant at Arms to walk Mr Monguno to the seat of the senate whip at the front row.

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Last week, Mr Ndume told journalists that President Tinubu has been “caged” in the Presidential Villa and that some forces are preventing well-meaning people from physically discussing the truth with him.

He claimed that the situation did not allow the president to know that many Nigerians are hungry.

Ndume’s previous ordeal

This is the second time Mr Ndume will be stripped of his position in the senate since he was elected into the upper chamber in 2011.

He was first elected into the upper chamber on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but defected to the APC in 2013.

The Bukola Saraki-led Senate appointed Mr Ndume as the Senate Leader but was subsequently removed in 2017 as a result of the recommendation of the then APC caucus in the senate.

Change in standing committee leadership

Mr Akpabio announced that Mr Ndume will now chair the Senate Committee on Tourism. He is to be assisted by Anthony Ane (APC, Ebonyi) who was named the deputy chairman of the committee.

The senate president also said that apart from his new role, Mr Monguno will be the new deputy chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, in line with the practice of the upper house of the National Assembly.

He said the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters chaired by Mr Monguno will now be headed by Adeniyi Adegbomire (APC, Ondo Central). Mr Adegbomire is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

“With the elevation of distinguished Senator Tahir Monguno to the position of the Majority Whip of the senate. His committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters will not go to the only Senior Advocate of Nigeria that we have in the 10th senate, Distinguished Senator Adeniyi Adegbonire SAN.

“The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tourism becomes Distinguished Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume.

“The Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation in line with the earlier practice lies with Distinguished Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno. In addition to the chief whip of the senate,” Mr Akpabio said.

Ned Nwoko (APC, Delta North) will be chairman of the newly-created Senate Committee on the Reparation and Repatriation while Musa Mustapha (APC, Yobe East) will be chairman of the Committee on Livestock Development, a new ministry just created by the federal government.

Simon Lalong (APC, Plateau South) will be chairman of the Senate Committee on Agricultural Institutions, Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) was reinstated as chairman of the committee on population.