{"id":115012,"date":"2024-04-04T17:22:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T16:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana"},"modified":"2024-04-04T20:03:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T19:03:30","slug":"budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana","title":{"rendered":"Budget Padding: I am not responsible for Ningi\u2019s suspension \u2013 Akpabio replies Falana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has declared that he was not responsible for the suspension of Bauchi Central Senator, Abdul Ningi, over allegations of budget padding.<\/p>\n<p>Ningi had, through his lawyer, Femi Falana, demanded the lifting of his suspension.<\/p>\n<p>Ningi warned that if his suspension is not lifted within seven days, he will take legal action against the Senate President, as he contends that the process leading to his suspension was flawed.<\/p>\n<p>DAILY POST reports that Ningi, was suspended by the Senate on March 12 for three months after claiming that the 2024 budget was padded with about N3.7 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>However, Akpabio\u2019s counsel, Umeh Kalu, SAN, in a letter to Falana, titled: \u2018Re: Request to Lift the Suspension of Sen. Abdul Ningi\u2019, stressed that the Senate President was not responsible for Ningi\u2019s suspension.<\/p>\n<p>The letter read: \u201cWe are solicitors to Sen. Godswill Akpabio and write you in respect of the above subject matter at his instance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour letter of March 27, with the above caption has been referred to us with instructions to react thereto.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have carefully read through your analysis of the facts and circumstances leading to your client\u2019s suspension from the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are unable to find reason in your verdict of our client\u2019s sole culpability in the said suspension. We therefore plead non est factum for our client.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn addition to the above and contrary to the contents of your letter under reference, our client was at no time your client\u2019s accuser, prosecutor and judge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur client\u2019s role at the session of the Senate that led to your client\u2019s suspension was and remains the statutory role of a Legislative House Presiding Officer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich role equally includes pronouncing the majority decision of the Legislative House at the end of debate and voting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPermit us to mention your attempt at drawing our client\u2019s attention to legal authorities and pronouncements of our Courts of record on the unconstitutionality of suspending members of Legislative Houses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhich attempt we dare say was unhelpful, due to your failure or refusal to make available, the relevant particulars of the said Court decisions in your letter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou may wish to provide these legal authorities which you have alluded to, bearing in mind that every decision of a court emanates from its peculiar facts, circumstances and extant laws.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn as much as it may not be necessary to canvass herein all the remedies available to our client, in response to your threats of a court action and petition to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is important we mention that legislative proceedings are guided by rules.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe urge you to give due consideration to the legal issues raised in this letter and be guided accordingly in your further and future action in respect of this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has declared that he was not responsible for the suspension of Bauchi Central Senator, Abdul Ningi, over allegations of budget padding. Ningi had, through his lawyer, Femi Falana, demanded the lifting of his suspension. Ningi warned that if his suspension is not lifted within seven days, he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":115010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[1570,2140,621,12972,102,254,11098],"class_list":["post-115012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-akpabio","tag-budget-padding","tag-falana","tag-nigeria","tag-ningi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Budget Padding: I am not responsible for Ningi\u2019s suspension \u2013 Akpabio replies Falana - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has declared that he was not responsible for the suspension of Bauchi Central Sen ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Budget Padding: I am not responsible for Ningi\u2019s suspension \u2013 Akpabio replies Falana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has declared that he was not responsible for the suspension of Bauchi Central Sen ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-04T16:22:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-04T19:03:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2024\/04\/sm_1712240833.55696.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Budget Padding: I am not responsible for Ningi\u2019s suspension \u2013 Akpabio replies Falana\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-04T16:22:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-04T19:03:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana\"},\"wordCount\":492,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2024\/04\/sm_1712240833.55696.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Akpabio\",\"Budget padding\",\"FALANA\",\"Nigeria\",\"Ningi\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/budget-padding-i-am-not-responsible-for-ningis-suspension-akpabio-replies-falana\",\"name\":\"Budget Padding: I am not responsible for Ningi\u2019s suspension \u2013 Akpabio replies Falana - 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