Senator Mohamed Ali Ndume of Borno South has been removed from his position as Chief Whip. The decision came during a plenary session on Wednesday, where the Senate President Godswill Akpabio called for a voice vote among members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Senate Caucus, who endorsed Ndume’s removal.
Senator Ndume has been replaced by Senator Tahir Mungono from Borno North. This development follows Ndume’s recent public criticisms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
The ruling party’s national leadership, in a letter signed by the national chairman Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Secretary Barrister Ajibola Bashiru, urged Ndume to resign from the APC and join an opposition party of his choice.
Sources within the National Assembly revealed that some pro-Tinubu Senators had been strategizing to not only strip Ndume of his Chief Whip role but also to suspend him, akin to the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi from Bauchi Central.
Ningi had faced suspension for three months earlier this year after he criticized the national budget in an interview, claiming that N3.7 trillion was unaccounted for in terms of specific projects or locations.
Ndume’s recent remarks have sparked controversy, particularly his statements about the President’s awareness of national issues.
In an interview last week, Ndume expressed his concerns: “Mr. President is not in the picture of what is happening outside the Villa. He has been fenced off and caged. So many of us won’t go through the backdoor to engage him… The government is not doing anything about the food scarcity and it needs to do something urgently.”
These comments drew sharp rebukes from the pro-Tinubu faction and the APC. Senator Sunday Karimi of Kogi West, along with other party members, criticized Ndume’s statements as disrespectful.
Insiders disclosed that the push for Ndume’s removal was driven by senators from the South West and Kogi. This situation has placed Senate President Akpabio in a difficult position, given that Ndume was instrumental in Akpabio’s election as Senate President in June 2023 as the Director-General of the Stability Group.
It is also reported that some Northern senators are awaiting the outcome of these developments before making their stance known.
A source noted, “The Northern Senators will rise against another plan to destabilize their caucus, barely a few months after Ningi was suspended.”
