The Senate has suspended Senator Abdul Ningi of Bauchi Central for three months for “dissemination of false information” about the 2024 budget.
Senator Ningi was suspended during plenary on Tuesday after a chaotic session during deliberations on his allegations of budget padding.
In an interview granted to BBC Hausa last weekend, Senator Ningi said more than N3 trillion of the N28.7 trillion 2024 spending plan was not properly explained.
This led the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Solomon Olamilekan, to move the motion for his suspension on Tuesday.
Senator Olamilekan explained that the figure was missing in the budget because some of the agencies they were meant for were on first-line charge.
He said his Bauchi counterpart’s interview has harmed the Senate’s image.
But matters got to a head when Senator Agom Jarigbe insinuated that all the lawmakers were culpable in the alleged budget padding scandal.
He further claimed that some lawmakers received N500 million, while others got as much as N100 billion from the budget.
Jarigbe's allegation did not go down well with his colleagues as his declaration threw the session into a rowdy one for nearly 30 minutes.
After deliberations, the Senate resolved to suspend Senator Ningi for three months from all parliamentary activities while Senator Kawu got off with a warning.
