By Amah
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Senator Ali Ndume, the former Chief Whip of the Senate has described his sack from his position as unfair.
The Borno lawmaker on Friday spoke from his country home in Maiduguri said his actions did not warrant his removal as Chief Whip of the 10th Senate.
The lawmaker remained defiant and absolved himself of any offence.
He said: “I did not say anything wrong. And, therefore, I want to state that I stand by all my statements in the interview I granted.
He further said: “Secondly, the party that recommended to the Senate that I should be removed from being the chief whip of the Senate, I take that as an act of God because if it is God who gave me that position. It is God that took it through APC. So, I bear no grudges about that.
“After all, I did not contest to be the chief whip. I did not contest to be the vice chairman of the appropriation committee. I contested to be one of the Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and God granted me that victory and I’m happy with God, what God has given to me.”
Nevertheless, he said he does not bear any grudges but also rejected the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Tourism, which was announced by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Wednesday. He said he does not have the experience and exposure to lead the group.
Speaking on the likelihood of leaving the APC, the lawmaker said he is a founding member of the party.
According to him, he was among the twenty-two senators from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that formed the APC when the current national chairman of the party Abdullahi Ganduje was a deputy governor in Kano State.
Furthermore, he explained that when former President Muhammadu Buhari, in the company with President Bola Tinubu, ordered him to sign a document to join APC at the Imo House in Abuja, he informed his people before going public as such, he would consult his people before deciding on whether to leave the APC or not.
Ndume’s removal as Senate Chief Whip was not unconnected with his comments in an interview with journalists last week, which many in the ruling APC considered an anti-President Bola Tinubu.
The Senator had claimed that the president had been caged at the villa and was not aware of the acute hardship confronting Nigerians.
However, the APC National Working Committee (NWC) had in a letter to the senate president alleged that Ndume was in serious breach of his office through unguarded utterances and outbursts against the Federal Government and Tinubu, in particular.
The NWC further accused Ndume of being a mole in the party and advised him to honourably resign his membership.
“We write on behalf of the National Working Committee of our great party 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,” the letter read.
“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 government before the global community is not only harmful to the government’s image alone but 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.
“His latest tirade on air, during a programme on Arise Television, where he referred to the government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Commander-in-Chief, as being run by thieves, portrays Ali Ndume as a person, who is bent on running the country down and running the party aground through incitements and cheap propaganda.
“We have reviewed that Sen. Ali Ndume should honourably resign the membership of APC and join any opposition party of his choice formally instead of hiding behind the veil of crass activism to decimate the hard earned cohesion and goodwill that our party, the APC, is enjoying within and outside the country.”
The letter added regarding Ndume, “His utterances, which are sheer propaganda, are not based on verifiable facts, are unbecoming of a member of the APC caucus of the Senate of the National Assembly.
“It, therefore, behoves the APC caucus to bring this to the attention of its members 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 All Progressives Congress, 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 position the members of the APC caucus in the senate may have.
“But we are of the opinion that distinguished Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno should immediately replace distinguished Sen. Ali Ndume, who is bent on bringing down the country, as the majority whip of the senate.”
After reading the letter, the Senate President put the NWC’s request to voice vote among the APC senators, and the majority of the senators supported Ndume’s removal.
Apart from losing his position as Chief Whip of the Senate, Ndume was also removed from his position as deputy chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, and made Chairman of Committee on Tourism.
