Ningi failed to listen after warning him about his 2024 budget padding claim - Ndume

The Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Ali Ndume, has said Senator Abdul Ningi refused to hid his warnings when he raised the 2024 budget padding allegation.

Recall that on Tuesday, March 12, Ningi was suspended by the Senate for three months over his claim that the budget was inflated by over N3 trillion.

Speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday, March 14, Ndume said;

“I sat next to the Senate Leader (Opeyemi Bamidele), he was very angry about what Ningi did, but honestly me too. What he (Ningi) did was wrong because I was involved.

“In the first instance, it started when they said capital project was skewed to the South. The total in that budget that was brought before us by the President was not up to N9 trillion, it was N8.9 trn and they are talking of skewed capital project to the South and the total adding up to N15 trillion.

“That N15 trillion is strange, even with the amendment that we made, the capital component of this budget is not up to that. I told him he was wrong. I had even warned him when he brought the issue to me. I had told him to get a consultant to analyse the budget. But he refused to listen to me.”

According to Ndume, Ningi was trying to make the 2024 project an ethnic and political issue, which is wrong.

He added that when Ningi first presented the case to him, he asked him to provide evidence to his claim but he could not.