The Nigerian Young Professionals for Equity (NYPE) has asked the Senator representing Bauchi Central, Abdul Ningi to apologise for misleading and misinforming Nigerians over alleged false claims of 2024 budget padding.
The now suspended Senator Ningi in an interview alleged that the National Assembly padded the 2024 N28.7trn budget to the tune of N3.22trn.
While describing the allegation as targeted at removing the Senate President, National President of NYPE, Dr Akpan Jameson appealed to politicians to shun all divisive tendencies and join hands with the Senate President to move the country to a greater height.
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He added, “We condemned the plot to impeach the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio. First of all, we thank Senator Opeyemi Bamidele for exposing the ploy to remove Akpabio as the Senate President.
“We thank him for standing by the truth and letting Nigerians know the truth. Today, we now know that all the allegations of budget padding as raised by Senator Abdul Ningi were hatched to remove the Senate President. This is not acceptable to Nigerians.
“The facts are there for all Nigerians to verify. The Senate passed into law N25.4trn excluding budget details for some government agencies and MDAs such as Judiciary, the National Assembly, INEC, UBEC, TETFUND, North East Development Commission and the NDDC.
“When you add the budget details of the entire MDAs which was put at N3.22trn, the total will be N28.77trn. From what we heard, this has been the case since 2021 to date.
“I can tell you that many Nigerians are with the Senate President on this. Senator Akpabio is a detribalised Nigerian. He has been a strong voice for the unity of Nigeria. He has worked and his still working with the Northerners.
“For anyone to make such false allegations, it is not acceptable to Nigerians especially those from the South-South. This is the first time someone from the South will be Senate President after Senator Joseph Wayas several years ago.
“The South-south has never had the opportunity of leading the Senate. Why is it that, when a Southerner, example in the dark days of when it was Igbo turn as Senate presidency, this kind of thing will happen? This is not acceptable.
“We condemn it. We therefore appeal to our brothers from other regions to shun such ideas because Southern political leaders and youths are solidly behind Senator Godswill Akpabio on this.
They should stop all attempts to embarrass the Senate President. So, I am appealing to everybody to allow the South South Senate President to complete his tenure for a united Nigeria.
“There was no cover-up neither was there any padding of the budget. Many ranking senators have spoken. It is now left for Senator Ningi to retract his statement and apologise to the Senate and Nigerians for misleading and misinforming them.
“This was a lie cooked by Ningi to flag-off the impeachment of the Senate President. It can only cause confusion. He is a ranking Senator. He knows the process to follow to raise such an issue. Why should he bring that to the public domain without first discussing it on the floor of the Senate? We thank God this has failed.
“The likes of Ningi should tell us how many people from other regions are working with him and he should check the record of Akpabio as Governor, Minister, and Senate president to see that more of his staff are northerners and others. This is the spirit of a new Nigeria which must be encouraged in overall interest of the country.
“We from Southern Nigeria, especially from South South, have commenced the collection of 10 million signatures to drum up support for the Senate President.
“We are also reaching out to northern young professionals, youths and others to join us in preaching peace, togetherness and love to usher in new faces of change for a united Nigeria. We equally thank the southern senators for coming together but appealed that the project should only be used to build a bridge across the country in support of President Tinubu’s effort to build the country.”
