The Senate on Wednesday sacked its Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, for criticising President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The upper chamber replaced Mr Ndume, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Borno South Senatorial District with Tahir Monguno (Borno North).
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the decision after many of the senators supported it during the plenary.
The decision followed a letter from Abdullahi Ganduje, the national chairman of the APC, and Bashir Ajibola, the party secretary, which the senate president read during the plenary.
In the letter, the APC national leaders recommended that the Senate relieve Mr Ndume of his position because of his “unguarded utterances” that are “against the federal government.”
The APC leaders described Mr Ndume as “someone who is bent on dividing the country” and as someone who is not putting the country in a better position in the international community.
The party subsequently recommended that Mr Ndume’s position in the Senate should be taken over by Mr Monguno.
After reading the letter, the senate president put it to vote and the senators voted overwhelmingly in support of it.
Mr Akpabio approved the recommendation and directed the Sergeant at Arms to walk Mr Monguno to the seat of the senate whip at the front row.
Last week, Mr Ndume told journalists that President Tinubu has been “caged” in the Presidential Villa and that some forces are preventing well-meaning people from physically discussing the truth with him.
He claimed that the situation did not allow the president to know that many Nigerians are hungry.
Details later….