JUST IN: Senator Ningi slams Akpabio for broadcasting recess allowance

Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central senatorial district, has criticised the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, for broadcasting the holiday allowance for senators on national television.

Recall that Akpabio, at the end of the screening of ministerial nominees, last weekend, announced on the floor of the Senate that recess allowances had been sent to the members.

He later withdrew the statement, saying he meant prayers were sent to their email boxes when the lawmakers in the Red Chamber criticised his remarks.

Nigerians have also berated the Senate President for making such a statement as the masses are grappling with economic and financial hardships.

Reacting, Ningi, a senator from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), described the action of the Senate President as “a huge embarrassment.”

He made this known during an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday.

“Some of these things, if they happen, you don’t broadcast it the way he did,” Ningi said.

“I think it is a huge embarrassment to the Senate President as a person and to the institution of the National Assembly. The Senate President should have gone further to say what the allowances are for. How did he come about the allowances? Who gave the allowances? Is it part of the remuneration?”

Senator Ningi admitted that people are bitter about the comment and he finds it “difficult to take” just like many Nigerians.

“I don’t know what N2m would do for a holiday. I find it very difficult to understand what this money is for,” the Bauchi Central lawmaker noted.

The Bauchi Senator further said some of his colleagues have received the N2 million recess allowance, while he has not gotten his own portion.

“Nothing has come to my account yet. I heard that some people got N2m but for me, nothing yet. Hopefully [I would get], when they tidy up things,” he added.