Kenneth Udeh, Abuja
The Senate has sacked Borno South Senator Ali Ndume as the Majority Whip of the Senate and replaced him with Borno North Lawmaker, Tahir Monguno.
The Lawmakers via voice votes further relieved Ndume from his position as the Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation and announced that the Lawmaker will henceforth chair the Committee on Tourism.
The Lawmakers majorly from the ruling All Progressives Congress took the decision following a letter addressed to the Senate Caucus by the National leadership of the ruling party, the APC signed by the party’s national chairman, and Secretary, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and Barrister Ajibola Bashiru.
According to the letter read before members of the Upper Chambers the party condemned Ndume over what they described as the unbecoming utterances of the now sacked chief whip, Sen. Ali Ndume.
Ndume in the letter was also asked to resign his membership of the APC and join any opposition party of his choice.
Last week, Ndume while reacting to the hardship in the country had in an interview stated that the president was not in the picture of what is happening outside the Villa, alleging that the president has been fenced off and caged.
“Nigerians are getting very angry. The government is not doing anything about the food scarcity and it needs to do something urgently. We don’t have a food reserve. There is an unavailability of food. The food crisis is the worst crisis that any nation can encounter. If we add that to the security crisis, it will be severe,” he said.
His remarks triggered reactions from the pro-Tinubu camp with both Senator Sunday Karimi (Kogi West) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) criticising his statement as derogatory.
Shortly after the voice vote which axed Ndume, Monguno was asked to proceed immediately to the front row to occupy the Chief Whip’s seat. Pro APC Lawmakers also cheered, celebrated and exchanged pleasantries with Monguno just as they took photographs.