Akpabio In Quagmire As Presidency Forces Move Against Ndume
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio is presumably in a quagmire following mounting pressure by some powerful agents in the corridors of power at the presidency to instigate sanctions against Senator Ali Ndume over his recent assertions against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Vocal Senator Ali Ndume, who is the Chief Whip of the Senate, had in a recent television interview, alleged that President Tinubu has been caged by some of his aides to the extend of preventing him from being accessed by people, including some of his ministers and close political associates.
Consequently, the Senator representing Borno South in the Red Chamber had further alleged that this unfortunate development is making the President not to know what is going on in the country.
Insider sources hinted that Ndume’s remarks is believed to have irked some of the influential forces within the Presidency that are now desirous of getting the vocal Senator representing Borno South reduced to size.
The Sources, who spoke with Nigerian Tribune, said the forces were particularly upset by Ndume’s remarks about a new cabal in the Presidential Villa thus, initiated steps to censure him.
Ndume specifically said that the powerful forces do not truly understand the economic challenges Nigerians face due to some of the current policies of government.
Accordingly, a coordinated effort involving the national leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senate President Godswill Akpabio is reportedly underway.
Their aim according to Tribune Newspapers sources is to first, reprimand Ndume over his statements, which they consider embarrassing to the President and detrimental to the image of the ruling party.
Ndume had said: “The President should wake up, it seems he isn’t in the picture of what is happening because he has been caged off. He has been fenced off by plutocrats.
“He should open his doors and meet those who will tell him the truth. Unfortunately, the people who will tell him the truth won’t struggle to meet him. I am very worried not only for the President himself but myself.”
For a start, the APC National Working Committee at the weekend condemned Ndume, accusing him of making outlandish allegations against the present administration.
A statement issued on Saturday, July 13, 2024, by Felix Morka, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, dismissed Ndume’s allegations that Tinubu has been caged in the Villa and further described the lawmaker as an attention seeker.
A party source, however, told the Nigerian Tribune that a former lawmaker and now presidential aide, who was said to have instigated the party to issue the statement to condemn Senator Ndume, is also mounting pressure on Senator Akabio, the President of the Senate to take certain drastic action against Ndume in order to jolt him to withdraw what the Villa forces described as his needless antagonism of the President.
Multiple sources revealed that Akpabio has been told to do a re-jig of the existing Committees of the Senate to remove the Senator Ndume from the Committee on Appropriation, where he is the current deputy chairman. In addition, Ndume may also lose his exalted position as Senate Chief Whip based on the pressures from presidency forces.
It was however gathered from sources privy to the plot, that “Akpabio sees himself in a serious quagmire over the Senator Ndume saga as the same Ndume was the Director General of the Stability Group, the campaign team that ensured his emergence as President of the Senate thus, moving against the Borno born senator could polarise the rank of his loyal team.
The development is coming few months after Senator Abdul Ningi’s suspension and recall which could seriously send a dangerous signal to the Northern Caucus that they have been marked for annihilation by the Tinubu presidency, using its foot soldiers in the National Assembly.
The sources further revealed that some senators from the South-West, whom their colleagues often referred to as the Tinubu boys in the Red Chamber, have already been railroaded into the orchestrated plot against Ndume allegedly coordinated by the presidency.
Another source said; “These same set of lawmakers, who ensured that the senator representing Bauchi Central, Abdul Ningi was suspended despite pleas from their colleagues are putting Akpabio under pressure to submit to the demand to checkmate Ndume”.
…Sourced from Nigerian Tribune
