Senator Ndume breaks silence over removal, rejects Committee Chairmanship for lack of competence

Senator representing Borno South Senatorial District, Mohammed Ali Ndume has rejected his appointment as Senate Committee on Tourism and Culture after his removal as the Chief Whip of the 10th Senate.

Ndume who broke silence 48 hours after his ouster for being critical of government, said he has reviewed his utterances in the media lately and insisted that it did not warrant his removal as the Senate Chief Whip, adding that he has no regrets.

CAPITAL POST recalled that the controversial lawmaker in the upper legislative Chamber in a media interview, decried hunger and economic hardship and attributed it to President Bola Tinubu working with “thieves and incompetent aides.”

In a letter by the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and co-signed by the National Secretary of the party, Senator Surajudeen Bashir which was read during plenary on Tuesday by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, the APC complained that Ali Ndume’s utterances in the media were bringing down the nation and causing national insecurity.

After his removal, Ndume was redeployed to the Senate Committee on Tourism, but which he rejected, saying he did not have the requisite training to handle tourism issues.

The Borno South lawmaker spoke in his country home of Maiduguri on Friday saying that he never wanted to be a senate whip after serving as the leader in the eight Senate in the first instance.

Having successfully led the campaigns that brought about the emergence of Godwill Akpabio as president of the Senate, the lawmaker said he was given the chance to choose which committee to serve as the vice chairman.

On the charge to resign from the All Progressives Congress (APC), the senator said he is a founding member of the party.

According to him, he was one of the twenty-two senators from the PDP that formed the APC when the current national chairman of the party Abdullahi Ganduje was a deputy governor in Kano State.

He, however, stated that when former President Muhammadu Buhari in the company of President Bola Tinubu ordered him to sign a document to join APC at the Imo House in Abuja, he informed his people before going public as such, he would consult his people before deciding on whether to leave the APC or not.

Senator Ndume said he could not speak up immediately after his sack because he was mourning the death of a family member.