Akpabio halts Ndume’s motion on unequal disbursement of N500bn funds

Disagreements erupted in the Senate yesterday as lawmakers aligned with Senate President Godswill Akpabio clashed over a motion regarding the allocation of a N500 billion loan.

The crisis highlighted the rift between the lawmakers who benefited from Akpabio’s recent appointment of principal officers and those who did not.

Earlier in the week, Akpabio unveiled the list of principal officers, with former Sokoto State governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and former Senate leader Ali Ndume missing out on the two most sought-after positions in the upper legislative chamber.

To the surprise of many, Ekiti senator Bamidele Opeyemi was named the majority leader instead of Ndume, who had played a prominent role as Akpabio’s campaign director for the Senate presidency. Tambuwal also lost out to Simon Mwadkwon, the Senator representing Plateau North, who was appointed as the minority leader.

During the plenary session, tensions rose when Ndume attempted to read the contents of his motion, which addressed the uneven distribution of a half a trillion naira loan among the six geopolitical zones by the Development Bank of Nigeria.

Akpabio intervened, preventing him from speaking. Infuriated, Ndume attempted to explain the details surrounding the motion from the 9th Senate, but Solomon Adeola, who was slated to head the Senate Committee on Appropriations, spoke instead. Adeola informed the Senate that Sani Musa had chaired the ad hoc Committee in the 9th Senate and should be allowed to speak.

Akpabio granted permission, and Musa accused Ndume of intentionally misleading the Senate, pointing out that Ndume had signed the final report and therefore couldn’t feign ignorance of its contents.

Without further consulting Ndume, Akpabio ruled and suspended the consideration of the motion already listed on the day’s Order Paper.

Despite Ndume’s attempts to reintroduce the motion, Akpabio frustrated his efforts. Another senator, Aliyu Wadada from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), protested and insisted on debating the motion.

However, Akpabio overruled him and refused to allow any further discussion on the matter.

An enraged Ndume criticized Musa, accusing him of spreading falsehoods. He asserted that, as an experienced senator, being unfairly and insisted that the issues in the motion were too garmane to  ignored.

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