The Senate on Wednesday named Sen. Mohammed Monguno (APC, Borno-North) as replacement for its Majority Whip, Sen. Ali Ndume (APC, Borno-South), who was relieved of the position.
The Red Chamber acted on request by the ruling All Progressives Congress (ACP) in a letter to the President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio.
It was signed by the National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, and the National Secretary, Ajibola Bashiru.
The letter, titled, “Complaints Against the Unbecoming Utterances of Sen. Ali Ndume”, was read by Akpabio during plenary in Abuja.
The letter reads, “I am writing on behalf of the National Working Committee (NWC) of our great party.
“This is to express our displeasure, our outrage and our deep disappointment at the unbecoming, unfounded and baseless criticism of the government and the party, the APC by your Majority Whip of the Senate, Sen. Ali Ndume as a member of the ruling party.
“We expected a much more responsible and decorous behaviour from him. But this has not been the case.
“His uncouth and rabid outbursts against the governments, before the international community and before the global community is not only harmful to the government’s image alone.
“It also undermines the party’s unity and cohesion and in addition, undermines the government’s effort to bring in foreign direct investments to Nigeria.
“As he is a ranking member of our party, his actions are unbecoming of a senior member of the Senate and sets a very poor example for others in future to follow.
“His latest tirade on air, during a programme on Arise Television where he referred to the government of Bola Tinubu as being run by thieves…
“Portrays Ali Ndume as a person who is bent on running the country down and running the party aground through insightments and chief propaganda.”
The party’s leadership said that it had reviewed that Ndume should resign the membership of APC and join any opposition party of his choice .
“Instead of hiding behind the veil of gross activism to decimate the hard earned cohesion and goodwill that our party, the APC is enjoying within and outside the country.
“His utterances which are sheer propaganda are not based on verifiable facts, are unbecoming of member of the APC caucus of the Senate of the National Assembly.
“And it therefore behoves on the APC caucus to bring this to the attention of its members.
“This is for necessary actions to curtail his deliberate mission to undermine the government and the party and the progress of Nigerians particularly those appointed by Mr President to work against his administration.
“We therefore urged the senate caucus to take appropriate steps to address this issue and ensure that members of the senate, particularly those within the APC hold and maintain decorum in their public utterances.
“Accordingly, we realise that the position of the chief whip of the senate belongs to our party and we are not opposed to whatever petition the members of the APC caucus in the senate may have.
“But we are of the opinion that distinguished Sen. Mohammed Monguno should immediately replace distinguished Sen. Ali Ndume who is bent on bringing down the country as the majority whip of the senate.”
Ndume was also removed as the Deputy Chairman, Sen. Committee on Appropriations, a post now taken over by Sen. Monguno.
Ndume was redeployed by Akpabio to chair the Senate Committee on Tourism.
